Qatar Central Bank data showed the continuation of the growth of the total international reserves in foreign currency for the Qatar Central Bank and reaching by the end of March to the level of 201.3 billion riyals.
Official reserves consist of four main components, foremost of which are: bonds and foreign treasury bills, deposits and cash balances with foreign banks, central bank holdings of gold, deposits of special drawing rights, and the State of Qatar’s share with the International Monetary Fund. In addition to the official reserves, there are other liquid assets in foreign currency so that both together constitute what are known as the total international reserves.
According to the data of Qatar Central Bank, the official reserves of Qatar Central Bank increased by the end of March by about 90 million riyals to 147.14 billion riyals, and the total international reserves, including liquidity in foreign currency, increased by about 90 million riyals to reach about 201.3 billion riyals ($55.23 billion), thus it increased by 63.6 billion riyals, or 46.2%, from two years ago in March 2018, and it also increased by 9.7% from a year ago in March 2019.
According to the annual comparisons with the month of March 2019, the bank's international reserves and liquidity witnessed an increase of about 17.8 billion riyals, or 9.7% to 201.3 billion riyals. This increase was distributed among some components of the bank’s international reserves, including an increase in the bank’s portfolio of bonds and foreign treasury bills by about 32.4 billion riyals, or 58.2% to 88.1 billion riyals. And decrease of bank balances with foreign banks by about 9.7 billion riyals, or 16.5%, to 49.2 billion riyals. The bank's holdings of gold increased by about 2.34 billion riyals in a year, or 42%, equal to 8 billion riyals.
Source (Al-Raya Newspaper-Qatar, Edited)
