Doha, Qatar–Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) international reserves and foreign currencies liquidity increased last December by 9.6 percent on an annual basis, to reach $59.31, compared to $54 billion in the same period last year. December recorded a monthly growth of 2.7 percent compared to November 2022.
The figures issued by QBC today, showed an increase in the bank’s official international reserves standing at $44.31 billion by the end of last December, scoring a growth rate of 12.4 percent.
QCB’s official international reserves recorded a growth of 3.6 percent, compared to that of November 2022, which at that time amounted to $42.77 billion, driven by a 20.4 percent jump in the central bank’s balances of bonds and foreign treasury bills.
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Official reserves consist of several main components: foreign bonds and bills, cash balances with foreign banks, gold holdings, deposits of special drawing rights (SDR), and the State of Qatar’s quota in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In addition to the official reserves, there are other liquid assets (deposits in foreign currency), so that the two together form what is known as the total reserves.
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On the other hand, the State of Qatar’s balance of SDR deposits in the IMF decreased by the end of December 2022 to QR 5.258 billion, compared to QR 5.518 billion in the same period of last year.
Balances with foreign banks also decreased to QR 15.469 billion at the end of December 2022, compared to a level of QR 26.135 billion in December 2021.
Gold stocks increased by the end of December 2022 to QR 19.591 billion, compared to QR 12.047 billion in December last year.