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Saudi foreign reserves fall 5% in February – SAMA

Saudi foreign reserves fall 5% in February – SAMA
The kingdom’s international reserves fell to SAR 1.83 trillion in February

Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia's foreign reserves decreased by 5.2% year-on-year in February 2018.

The kingdom’s international reserves fell to SAR 1.83 trillion ($487.26 billion) by the end of the second month of 2018, down from SAR 1.93 trillion ($514.08 billion) in the same month a year earlier, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s (SAMA) monthly report revealed.

Month-on-month, Saudi overseas reserves declined 1.5% to SAR 1.85 trillion last month, compared to January.

The value of investments in international securities dropped by 9.8% or SAR 130.22 billion ($34.72 billion) to hit SAR 1.2 trillion ($318.9 billion) in February 2018, against SAR 1.33 trillion ($356.63 billion) in the year-ago period.

The SAMA’s report noted that foreign cash and deposits abroad went up 5% to SAR 593.63 billion ($158.3 billion) in February, compared to SAR 565.12 billion ($150.7 billion) in the same month the previous year.

Saudi reserves at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tumbled to SAR 5.75 billion in the previous month, from SAR 7.17 billion in the prior-year period.

The kingdom’s special drawing rights (SDRs) grew to SAR 30.34 billion in the second month of 2018, versus SAR 27.8 billion in the same month in the prior year, whereas monetary gold remained unchanged at SAR 1.62 billion.