UAE Central Bank’s foreign assets up 10%

abu dhabi — Total foreign assets at the Central Bank of the UAE amounted to Dh336.32 billion, a growth of 10.3 per cent from Dh324.98 billion during the corresponding period in 2017.

Statistics released by the central bank indicated that the rise in foreign assets is attributed to the increase in the bank’s current account balances and deposits with banks abroad from Dh178.83 billion during the first quarter of 2017 to Dh271.2 by the end of the same period this year.

The figures released excludes the central bank’s reserve tranche position and SDR holdings with the International Monetary Fund.

In the meantime, the central bank’s held-to-maturity foreign securities dropped from Dh140.5 billion in the first quarter of 2017 to Dh55.18 billion by the end of March 2018, while other foreign assets edged up from Dh5.66 billion to Dh9.94 billion during the same period.

In the meantime, monetary aggregates, which include currency in circulation outside banks plus monetary deposits and quasi-deposits and government deposits — referred to as M3 — increased by Dh61 billon during the first three months of the year to Dh1.527 trillion from Dh1.466 trillion during the same period in 2017.

Government deposits reached Dh233 billion in January, while monetary deposits hit Dh440.7 billion and quasimonetary deposits stood at Dh783.2 billion. — Wam