Saudi reserves fall SAR 24.8B in May, SAMA data shows

Saudi Arabia’s foreign reserve assets fell about SAR 24.8 billion, or 1%, month-on-month in May, landing at SAR 1.83 trillion, data from the Saudi Central Bank show. The drop comes after a SAR 1.87 trillion reading in April.

Year-on-year, net foreign assets were up 6%, or SAR 110.1 billion. That YoY gain masks the monthly decline, which reverses three months of steady accumulation through the first quarter.

The bulk of the move sits in foreign currency reserves, which account for roughly 95% of the total. That pool–investments in foreign securities, cash, and deposits abroad–fell to SAR 1.73 trillion from SAR 1.75 trillion in April, though it remains up 7% from May 2025.

Other components were relatively quiet. Reserves parked at the International Monetary Fund ticked up 2% to SAR 12.92 billion. Special Drawing Rights slipped 1% to SAR 79.6 billion. Gold reserves were flat at SAR 1.62 billion, a level they have held since February 2008.

The SAR 24.8 billion monthly decline is the largest since November 2025, when reserves dropped SAR 31.2 billion. It is too early to pin the move on a single factor from the public data alone – SAMA does not break out monthly flows by transaction type. What the data suggest is a net outflow from the central bank's foreign-currency holdings during the month, whether for fiscal transfers, sovereign wealth fund top-ups, or currency market operations.

The same release showed that broad money supply (M3) rose 1% month-on-month in May, implying domestic liquidity was not being drained in parallel. That pattern – falling foreign reserves alongside stable or growing domestic money – often points to capital outflows rather than domestic monetary tightening.

For anyone tracking the kingdom's external position, the YoY trend is still firmly positive. The monthly signal is what changed. A second consecutive drawdown in June would make the pattern harder to dismiss as a one-off adjustment.