Doha, (Business News Report)|| Foreign exchange reserves rose in February by 2.6% compared to the same month last year, reaching 210.395 billion riyals (about $57.8 billion).
Qatar Central Bank said that the foreign exchange reserves rose after they were 204.912 billion riyals in the same period in 2021.
Figures released by the bank showed an increase in official reserves by the end of February 2022 on an annual basis by about 4.478 billion riyals to reach 153.207 billion riyals, driven by the increase in the central bank’s balances of foreign bonds and treasury bills by about 40.524 billion riyals to the level of 122.797 billion riyals.
Official reserves, according to the Qatar News Agency (QNA), consist of four main components: foreign bonds and treasury bills, cash balances with foreign banks, gold holdings, special drawing rights deposits, and Qatar’s share in the International Monetary Fund.
The official reserves include other liquid assets, which are deposits in foreign currency. The two together constitute what is known as total international reserves.
In the same context, the balance of special drawing rights deposits from the State of Qatar’s share in the International Monetary Fund increased by the end of February by 3.552 billion riyals, compared to February 2021, to reach the level of 5.5 billion riyals.
On the other hand, balances with foreign banks decreased by 39.389 billion riyals to the level of 13.570 billion riyals by the end of February 2022 compared to the same period last year.
The gold stock decreased by the end of February 2022 by about 169 million riyals to 11.339 billion riyals.
In a separate context, the Qatar Stock Exchange is still recording a positive performance for the third month in a row, according to a report by Kamco Invest.
The report also said that most sectors in the Qatar Stock Exchange recorded a positive performance in February.
The Qatar Stock Exchange index rose by 3.6% during the past month to close at 12,948.8 points, the report said.
It also indicated that in terms of sectoral performance, six out of even sectoral indices recorded monthly gains. The industries sector came on top with an increase of 8.1%, supported by the increase in the share price of Investment Holding Group by 60.6%.
