Mubasher: Qatar’s foreign-currency reserves soared QAR 42.47 billion ($11.72 billion), or 31.02%, year-on-year, in December 2018, hitting its highest level since July 2016.
The GCC nation’s international reserves hiked to QAR 179.40 billion ($49.52 billion) at the end of December, from QAR 136.93 billion ($37.79 billion) in the same month a year earlier, according to the monthly monetary bulletin released by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB)
Month-on-month, Qatar’s foreign reserves rose 1.79% from QAR 176.24 billion in November 2018.
Gold holdings accounted for QAR 4.68 billion of Qatar’s international reserves, while balances at foreign banks and holdings of foreign treasury bills and bonds each made up QAR 49.06 billion, the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) said in a statement.
The gas-rich country’s foreign reserves included QAR 1.94 billion worth of special drawing rights (SDRs) held with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), raising the total value of official reserves to QAR 110.49 billion.
Meanwhile, foreign-currency liquid assets amounted to QAR 68.91 billion last month, the QCB data showed.
