The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has increased its gold reserves by 19.3 percent during the first quarter of the year, adding AED4.444 billion to achieve a total of AED27.425 billion ($7.46 billion) at the end of March, up from AED22.981 billion at the conclusion of 2024. According to the UAE Central Bank’s statistical bulletin, demand deposit balances also experienced growth, surpassing AED1.147 trillion by the end of March, compared to approximately AED1.109 trillion at the end of December 2024. Of this overall amount, AED856.062 billion was held in local currency and AED291.116 billion in foreign currencies.
Savings deposits increased to AED338.788 billion at the end of March, rising from AED317.48 billion in December. This total included AED268.97 billion in local currency and AED51.817 billion in foreign currencies.
Read more: Gold reserves at CBUAE surpass $6.3 billion in Q3 2024
Cash withdrawals and deposits
Time deposits reached AED991.757 billion by the end of March, comprising AED614.854 billion in local currency and AED376.9 billion in foreign currencies.
The Central Bank’s banking operations statistics further revealed that total transfers executed within the banking sector through the UAE Funds Transfer System (UAEFTS) amounted to AED5.449 trillion during the first quarter. This included AED3.331 trillion in bank-to-bank transfers and AED2.118 trillion in customer transfers.
In terms of cheque transactions, statistics for March indicated that cheques cleared using their images totaled AED351.359 billion across 5.615 million cheques during the first three months of the year. In March alone, the value of cheques processed reached AED116.712 billion through approximately 1.83 million cheques.
Additionally, cash withdrawals from the Central Bank totaled AED63.887 billion in the first quarter, while cash deposits during the same period amounted to AED47.124 billion.
