Mubasher: Qatar's foreign reserves hiked 25.6% year-on-year in July, hitting an all-time high since May 2017, according to the Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) monthly monetary bulletin released Thursday.

Foreign reserves amounted to QAR 165.09 billion ($45.33 billion) last month, compared to QAR 131.46 billion ($36.09 billion) in the same period of the previous year.

On a monthly basis, overseas reserves of the gas-rich nation edged up 0.29% in July against QAR 164.61 billion in June, data showed.

The QCB attributed the rise in international reserves to the increase in official reserves by 1% to QAR 92.8 billion last month from QAR 91.9 billion in the prior month, in addition to the 18.2% surge in the country’s bonds and treasury bills to QAR 39.36 billion from QAR 33.31 billion in June.

On the other hand, gold reserves decreased to QAR 3.8 billion in July from QAR 3.89 billion in the previous month.

It is noteworthy that Qatar’s reserves include foreign-currency liquid assets at a total amount of QAR 72.29 billion, in addition to special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and foreign reserves in international banks at QAR 1.39 billion and QAR 48.24 billion, respectively.