By: Eman Ghaly
Mubasher: Qatar's foreign reserves dropped 13.7% year-on-year, or by QAR 22.98 billion ($6.31 billion), in April, according to the Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) monthly monetary bulletin released Thursday.
Foreign reserves amounted to QAR 144.7 billion ($39.75 billion) in April, compared to QAR 167.88 billion ($46.06 billion) in the same period of the previous year.
Since June 2017, overseas reserves of the gas-rich nation fell QAR 21.83 billion ($5.99 billion), as the country registered QAR 166.53 billion by the end of May 2017, after four Arab countries — the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt — severed their economic and diplomatic ties with Qatar.
Month-on-month, Qatari foreign reserves rose 5% last month, for the second month in a row.
The QCB attributed the rise in international reserves to the increase in official reserves to QAR 27.3 billion in April, compared to QAR 65.1 billion in the prior month, in addition to the jump in the country’s foreign reserves in international banks, which recorded QAR 51.7 billion instead of QAR 45.1 billion in March.
Meanwhile, foreign-currency liquid assets and gold declined to QAR 72.4 billion and QAR 4.11 billion, respectively.
Translated by: Kholoud Mohamed Hussein
