DXBtoDOH

Anyone noticed the riyal has dropped in value against the USD despite the ostensibly fixed exchange rates? It used to be consistently 3.64 to the USD till the embargo and has fluctuated a bit. Last week it went back to 3.64 and now it's jumped to 3.82.

Milhouse - what's your company telling you? What's going on. Why is the exchange rate fluctuating? Embargo, yes, but Qatar is still filthy rich.

scrubbedexpat141

It's the added purchasing power of having you based there now

DXBtoDOH

I think you meant subtracted purchasing power. Har har har.

scrubbedexpat141

No, it's the risk you pose. Being in country with mountains of unspent cash. One day you might snap and buy buy buy.

DXBtoDOH

I don't follow. Surely if I started spending and buy buy buy that'd stimulate the economy and push up the exchange rate?

scrubbedexpat141

Not like you to suck the fun out of jokes?


It is strange though, the movement against the pound has been fairly similar but perhaps not as drastic as people thought it could be since the blocks put in place.

Hadn't given it much thought before, probably because expected it to be pegged firmly, like you mentioned.

DXBtoDOH

Yeah. I was transferring earnings to a dollars account overseas for security before transferring that to the UK accounts at a favourable exchange rate. So I never paid attention to the pegged rate until quite recently. It's only by sheer luck that my last transfer a few months ago was when the exchange rate returned to the original fixed level for a few days.

I'm keeping an eye on it daily now as I want to make another large transfer soon, but if I transfer it now I stand to lose around a thousand quid compared to the previous exchange rate!

Millhouse

Lack of liquidity, falling reserves and massive capital outflows innit.

In short, you're part of the problem dxbdoh.

scrubbedexpat141

Surely to dollars then pounds you pay two lots of transaction fees and it's better to just go direct?

DXBtoDOH

My salary is based on dollars that with a fixed exchange rate to the USD when doing large sum transfers to an overseas USD account there's very minimal costs involved. Most of my funds are in the UK but I like to keep an offshore account in dollars to play around with swings in the pound.

I'm just more intrigued by the Qatar situation.

DXBtoDOH

Interesting enough I checked my bank's website. Below are the currency rates against Qatari Riyal Last Updated On: 11/13/2017 7:44:53 AM


Buy USD at 3.63, sell USD at 3.65. (the official rate was ostensibly 3.64)

I wonder if the banks are being ordered by the government to stick to the official rate and XE.com is showing a different story?

UKCityGent

One of the main drivers for the currency fluctuations is Qatar is heavily investing in the Yuan (over $86+ billion worth of transactions) and has signed other agreements with them under a single gold-backed currency. Qatars partners Iran is also heavily involved in the Yuan. This has an impact on the basket. You will see more liquidity in the Riyial in the future.

DXBtoDOH

Ah, moving away from the USD. Makes sense as Saudi and UAE are firmly in the USD camp. Sigh. Embargo is definitely not ending any time soon.

UKCityGent

You would think they are moving away from the $ but since China owns the US$ debt ($3.1trillion +) they are effectively buying dollar !


The embargo is going to last a little while longer until there can be sanity after the night of the long knives (I am opening a book on a minor skirmish between Saudi and Lebanon (Iraq))

weasel decentral

XE rate is probably the interbank commercial rate rather than the high street rate you get.
I'm guessing in your case the banks outside Qatar are not tied to the 3.64 pegged rate by law and can adjust for risk accordingly.