25 July 2017
RIYADH — Foreign assets of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and the commercial Saudi banks reached SR1.996 trillion by the end of May, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported on Monday quoting the agency's official figures. According to the figures, SAMA's net foreign assets were SR1.844 trillion against foreign demands of SR18.462 billion.

The bulk of SAMA's foreign assets is investment in securities which is SR1.256 trillion representing 67.4 percent while its deposits in foreign banks occupied second place with SR361.3 billion representing about 19.4 percent of its total foreign assets.

The third category of SAMA's foreign assets are in the form of bullion and cash which were SR245 billion representing about 13.2 percent.

The foreign assets of the Saudi banks were SR152.4 billion against SR150.7 billion by the end of April with an increase of SR1.7 billion.

According to SAMA's figures, the rise of the foreign assets of the Saudi banks to SR1.7 billion came as a result of the increase of the foreign deposits in these banks which went up by about two percent to reach SR239 billion by the end of May from SR233.7 billion by the end of April. The agency, which is the Kingdom's central bank, said the foreign assets of the Saudi banks reached their highest level in May since July 2016.

© The Saudi Gazette 2017