Saudi Arabia has managed to keep the level of its foreign exchange reserves stable at $659.5 billion at the end of October, according to local media, Arab News reported. The reserves have remained stable and at the same level for the last four months. The stability was a result of the country’s drive to tap into different sources of funding, other than the foreign exchange reserves. Among the options that the country chose were the issuance of government bonds to meet spending and to bridge budget deficit arising out of the sharp drop in oil prices. In view of the decline in oil prices and heavy government spending, the country withdrew $245.1 billion from the forex reserves during the first six months of the current year, bringing them down to $659.5 billion at the end of June from $904.6 billion, a decrease of 20%. However, the government stopped withdrawing from the reserves as of July 2015 following the issuance of government bonds worth SR15 billion (3.78 billion) in June.
