Qatar's gold reserves up 1,500% in year

From Qatar News Agency
via The Peninsual, Doha, Qatar
Friday, July 13, 2007

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Qatar Central Bank gold holdings more than quadrupled between January and the end of April, data on the central bank's website showed yesterday.

Qatar, which said last year it wanted to diversify its foreign exchange reserves away from the dollar, held 702.8 million riyals ($193.1 million) of gold at the end of April, compared with 158.1 million riyals at the end of January. The central bank's total assets reached 21.1 billion riyals at the end of April.

The current gold holdings are equal to about 9 tonnes of gold at current market prices.

The bank's gold holdings are up more than 15 times since April 2006.

Qatar's Central Bank said last April it was buying euros as part of its diversification programme.

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