Saudi central bank’s net foreign assets shrink to lowest level since Dec 2011

Net foreign assets at Saudi Arabia’s central bank shrank by $10.8bn from a month earlier to $535.9bn in October, as the government liquidated reserves to cover a large budget gap caused by low oil prices, official data showed on Monday.

Assets tumbled by 16.3 per cent from a year earlier to their lowest level since December 2011. They reached a record high of $737bn in August 2014 before starting to fall.

The assets are believed to be held mainly in U.S. dollars, in the form of securities such as U.S. Treasury bonds and deposits with banks abroad.