Riyadh - Mubasher: The Saudi foreign reserves assets reached SAR 1.685 trillion ($449.31 billion) in May 2020, down by 13.1% from SAR 1.939 trillion ($517.09 billion) in the corresponding month in 2019.

On a monthly basis, foreign reserves were marginally up by 0.15% or SAR 2.53 billion ($673.87 million), showed the monthly bulletin of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) on Monday.

The annual drop in foreign reserves is owed to decreasing investments in foreign securities by 13.9% year-on-year (YoY) in May 2020, with their value standing at SAR 1.01 trillion ($271.68 billion). 

Foreign currency and deposits abroad plunged by 12.8% YoY last month, reaching SAR 622.87 billion ($166.1 billion). Likewise, special drawing rights (SDRs) dipped to SAR 29.75 billion ($7.93 billion), compared with SAR 31.45 billion ($8.39 billion).

Saudi reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) grew to SAR 11.87 billion ($3.16 billion) last May, whilst the monetary gold reserves stabilised at SAR 1.62 billion ($433 million).