HE the Governor of Qatar Central Bank Sheikh Abdulla Bin Saoud al-Thani said on Wednesday that the central bank's foreign international reserves and liquidity are worth more than twice the monetary base, which is the total money issued in addition to all the deposits of local banks including the required reserves which cannot be withdrawn.
He said that such a fact makes it clear that the available reserves are more than enough whether to defend the Qatari riyal or for monetary policy tools.
The central bank governor was speaking during the final day of Euromoney 2017 and discussed some of the data related to the banking and financial sector in the State of Qatar.
He stressed that the central bank's foreign assets were a small fraction of the foreign assets in the State of Qatar, despite that the international reserves and foreign currency liquidity were eight times issued currency. The law states that reserves must not be less than one time issued currency. 
Sheikh Abdulla highlighted that assets of commercial bank in Qatar grew on a yearly basis by 12.8% in the first nine months of 2017. Deposits of commercial bank clients grew during the same period by more than 17.5%. Credit facilities also grew 13%.
Capital adequacy for banks operating in Qatar increased by more than 15.4%, while the delinquency rate was 1.5%, which the governor said reflected the quality of the assets of commercial banks operating in Qatar. 
He said that return on shareholders' equity in the first nine months were 14.5%, while return on assets were 1.6%. Liquidity coverage for national banks increased by more than 141%  and 143% for all banks operating in Qatar. 
The QCB governor also stressed on the commitment of all banks and financial institutions to International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS 9) as well as the Basel Committee. He also said that this year's Euromoney invited a host of decision makers, and experts in economy and finance to discuss the latest developments and challenges facing the local as well as the global economy. 
Sheikh Abdulla said that Qatar was hosting the conference for the sixth consecutive year despite the illegal siege imposed on the country by some of the neighbouring countries. He added that such a fact reflects the state's commitment to such events and to discuss international developments in the economy in general and the financial sector in particular, with the goal of helping that sector and achieving sustainable development. 
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