DUBAI: National Bank of Oman, the country’s third-largest bank by assets, reported a 21.4 percent rise in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, but also revealed a 12 percent decline in customer deposits during the first half of the year.

NBO’s deposits dropped to 2.46 billion rials ($6.39 billion) at the end of June, down from 2.78 billion rials in the same period last year. Aarthi Chandrasekaran, an analyst with NBK Capital, said this could reflect the impact of falling oil prices.

“Deposits at NBO have been choppy in recent quarters,” he said. He said the deposit drop at NBO was not too much of a concern as long as deposit growth could stay ahead of loan growth in the coming quarters.

Government finances in the oil-exporting Gulf states have been hit by the fall in oil prices in the past year. Crude oil prices dropped from $115 a barrel in June 2014 to a low near $45 in January. They have since recovered some ground but are still close to half their peak last year.—Reuters