The confidence of top officials on Qatar’s economy and its resilience remains intact. While confidence in the global economy has fallen, Qatar-based CEOs remain optimistic about the growth prospects for the country.
According to Qatar CEO Outlook report by KPMG, 60 percent of CEOs in Qatar expressed confidence in the growth prospects of their country, compared to 45 percent of global CEOs who expressed confidence in their county’s growth prospects.
The survey revealed that 50 percent of Qatar-based CEOs said that progress has sharply accelerated putting them years in advance of where they expected to be on the creation of new digital business models and revenue stream and the creation of a seamless digital customer experience.
The trust of investors shows the strength of Qatar’s economy which has shown a strong track record of growth and resilience.
Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) has expanded by four-fold within a span of nearly two decades, as a result of wise leadership of the country and strategic investments of revenues generated by exploiting the natural resources of the country,
Over the last 20 years the size of the Qatari economy has quadrupled from nearly QR200bn in 2002-2003 to QR800bn in 2019. Qatar’s GDP for the first quarter of 2020 stood at around QR167.33bn, as per the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) data.
International Monetary Fund’s recent report said that Qatar is among the most resilient economies in the region which will grow by 2.5 percent in 2021-22, which is in contrast to Qatar’s neighboring countries. Exports of the private sector in June of 2020 amounted to QR973m, compared to about QR609.6m in May, a significant month-on-month increase of 60 percent, according to the Qatar Chamber (QC) data.
The banking sector has also delivered strong performance. Despite the lockdown and other challenges, banks in Qatar proved their resilience against the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). The combined assets of the listed commercial banks witnessed a growth of nearly two percent during the first six months of this financial year. The findings from PwC’s ‘H1 2020 Qatar Banking Sector Report’, revealed that Qatar succeeded in minimising the impact of the pandemic on its banking industry.
The aggregated total assets of the eight listed commercial banks grew 1.9 percent in the first half of 2020, to hit QR1.66 trillion, while the aggregated loans and advances to customers grew 2.1 percent to reach QR1.44 trillion in the first six months of 2020.
