Qatar’s foreign exchange reserves declines with 25%

CAIRO – 3 November 2017: Qatar’s foreign exchange reserves have declined 25 percent last September according to official data announced by Doha’s National Bank.

The official data, published on the bank’s website, showed that the foreign exchange reserves declined to 6 billion riyals ($35.6 billion) last September, compared to the same month last year when they amounted to 173.7 billion riyals ($47.7 billion).

According to the data, the foreign exchange reserves include cash money with foreign currencies up to 69.4 billion riyals ($19.06 billion), deposits of 36.1 billion riyals ($9.9 billion), gold balance of 4.4 billion riyals ($1.2 billion), treasury bills and bond investments of $4.9 billion and special drawing right (SDR) deposits which hit $386 million.

Qatar’s economy has been suffering during the last period as a result of its diplomatic crisis with the Arab Quartet.

According to a report published by Bloomberg on October 17, the foreign exchange activity between local and international banks in Doha is almost at a standstill. “The central bank is still providing dollars to local lenders to meet domestic business needs at the pegged rate of 3.64 riyals per dollar.”

On June 5, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain decided to cut all diplomatic ties with Qatar, hurling allegations that the state supports terrorism. Ports and airspace were cut off to Qatari vessels. However, several Qatari media outlets denied the existence of any economic crisis in Doha.