The international reserves and foreign currency liquidity of Qatar Central Bank have surged 2.65 percent year-on-year in December, recording up to 261.8 billion Qatari Riyals ($71.7 billion).
Official data reported by the Qatar News Agency indicated that this is compared to 255 billion riyals in the same month of 2024.
The growth of Qatar’s reserves signifies a regional financial position, which is expected to be reflected in the December data of other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Saudi Arabia had already indicated the trend, experiencing a substantial monthly increase in foreign reserve assets of 5 percent in November to $463.6 billion, implying a build-up of liquidity and buffers in the region.
The monetary policy stance of the Federal Reserve is often reflected in the GCC central banks whose currencies are pegged to the US dollar. The accumulation of foreign reserves assists in sustaining the credibility of these pegs, liquidity management, and safeguarding the agreed exchange rates in the global financial volatility.
The data revealed that the official international reserves of QCB had increased by 3.15 percent at the end of December to 202.2 billion riyals as compared to the same period of 2024.
The bank’s holdings of foreign bonds and treasury notes declined by 6.8 billion riyals, remaining at 120.3 billion riyals in December. The official reserves are composed of several core elements.
The addition to that are Special Drawing Rights deposits, Qatar’s quota at the International Monetary Fund, and other liquid foreign currency assets. A sum of these factors forms the total international reserves.
The data also emphasized a substantial growth in the gold reserves, which improved by 24.7 billion Riyals in December, reaching 58.504 billion Riyals at the end of 2025, compared to 33.8 billion Riyals in December of the previous year.
Moreover, the balance of SDR deposits of the IMF quota in Qatar rose by 193 million riyals, which as of the end of December amounted to 5.2 billion riyals, against the same month the previous year.
Thus, the balances held with foreign banks decreased by 11.8 billion riyals, slipping to 18.1 billion riyals by the end of December.
