JEDDAH: Saudi Arabian money supply and bank lending figures show the economy of Saudi Arabia has started to slow as low global energy prices force the government to clamp down on spending.

M3 money supply grew just 3.9 percent from a year earlier in October, the slowest expansion since November 2010, when Saudi Arabia was emerging from the global financial crisis, according to central bank data released late on Thursday. Annual growth in September 2015 was 8.5 percent.

Growth in narrower measures of money supply, M1 and M2, also slowed sharply to multi-year lows. Growth in bank lending to the private sector fell to 5.0 percent, again the lowest rate since November 2010, from 7.1 percent.

The cost of loans is rising, partly because banks have begun diverting money to buy bonds that finance the government’s deficit. The one-year interbank offered rate has jumped 35 basis points to a six-year high of 1.33 percent since the end of July.

The central bank’s October data also contained some signs of slower consumer spending; cash withdrawals from automated teller machines fell to their lowest level this year.

A Reuters poll of 24 economists, conducted in mid-October, predicted Saudi economic growth would ease to a median 2.5 percent next year from 3.0 percent this year.