For over a decade Qatar has been the world’s leading supplier of liquefied natural gas, and by 2024 the country aims to boost output by 43%. While much of Qatar’s growth in the decades after independence in 1971 was fuelled by crude oil, natural gas gained prominence in the 1990s. In 2018 Qatar announced it would leave the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which it joined as one...
Despite a relatively small population of around 2.7m, Qatar accounts for around 5% of insurance premiums in MENA. Nevertheless, relative to the size of its economy, insurance activity remains at a modest level. Annual premiums of around $3bn account for 1.5% of GDP, compared to a global average of more than 6%. The insurance penetration rate, meanwhile, stands at less than 2%, significantly...
Qatar is home to some of the region’s most prominent sharia-compliant institutions. Despite operating in a crowded and competitive arena, over recent decades the country has claimed a significant share of the banking, insurance and investment segments. More recently, Qatar faced the challenges of a sustained dip in oil prices and a regional economic blockade. However, due to a prudent...
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) has faced considerable challenges in recent years, including a dip in oil prices and the effects of an economic blockade. However, after an initial decline in late 2017, the main index’s performance during 2018 established it as one of the fastest growing in MENA. The QSE has also succeeded in attracting an increasing number of foreign investors – an important...
Over the course of 2018 Qatar’s banking industry demonstrated its resilience in the face of an economic blockade placed upon the country by a number of governments. Credit ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch both upgraded Qatar’s sovereign credit ratings outlook to stable in the summer of 2018, recognising the improving macroeconomic scenario and the largely successful resolution of the...
Rising oil prices and effective policy-making have played a significant role in returning Qatar to a healthy trade surplus. A swift response by a range of government ministries has secured new routes to global markets. In March 2018 Hamad Port, which officially opened in 2017, celebrated the handling of 1m twenty-foot equivalent units ahead of schedule. Foreign investment also continues to...
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