Qatar economy shows signs of recovery - NBK

Qatar’s economy is showing signs of recovery after two consecutive monthly increases in money supply, the National Bank of Kuwait said in a report released on Sunday.

Qatar’s M2 money supply, an indicator of future inflation, contracted by a cumulative 10.3 percent in April from an all- time high in June 2008, the bank said In May and June, M2 increased 2.3 percent and 4 percent consecutively on a month-on-month basis.

“The negative growth seems to be slowing and the month-on- month expansions in May and June reflect this improvement,” the bank said. “The efforts taken by the Qatari government have played a role in this turnaround, aided by a relative stabilization in the global economy.”

Qatari Finance Minister Youssef Hussain Kamal in July said he expects economic expansion with the current oil price and sees 6 percent to 7 percent as a “healthy” growth level this year. Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has been buoyed by an expansion in LNG sales. The Gulf state aims to double production to 77 million tons of LNG by the end of 2010.

The “real” economy has finished bottoming out, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber Al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, said Sept. 22. He added that oil prices need to remain at $70 to $100 a barrel to avoid last year’s market crash. Oil prices have more than halved to about $69 a barrel from a high of $147.27 a barrel in the summer of 2008.

The Qatari exchange index, which shed 67 percent from a June 2008 high to its recent low in March, has since recovered 40 percent of its value, the bank added in its report.

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