The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that it expects the total foreign reserves in Arab countries to fall by 5.6 per cent to $1 trillion by the end of this year. According to IMF data, such reserves amounted to $1.060 trillion in 2016, compared to $1.172 trillion s in the previous year.
The data covers 19 Arab countries, with Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, showing foreign exchange reserves at the end of 2016 valued at $540.4 billion, a fall of 11.7 per cent on the figure for 2015. The IMF expects that Saudi’s total foreign reserves will stand at $494.6 billion by the end of this year.
Read: Saudi bank assets plummet to lowest level in 5 years
Algeria is second on the IMF list, with reserves of $120.2 billion last year, followed by the United Arab Emirates with $95.2 billion, Libya with $62.7 billion and Qatar with $43.6 billion.
Although Jordan’s foreign exchange reserves of $16.7 billion in 2016 is a relatively low figure compared to the big players in the oil industry, last year it actually recorded an increase on the previous year, when reserves stood at $16.6 billion.