Qatar’s Sheikha Alanoud bint Hamad al-Thani, a senior official at the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) has observed that the country with its fiscal integrity and growing central bank reserves, is undergoing “unparalleled recovery” enabling it to outperform its regional peers.
Sharing her thoughts at the second Qatar Trade Summit, Sheikha Alanoud, QFC’s Managing Director for Business Development remarked that “Our economy is currently experiencing unparalleled recovery with significant expansion over the last four months. This has been predominantly due to new business orders.”
Qatar Financial Centre’s latest Purchasing Managers’ Index revealed that both output and new businesses continued to register growth in the country as operations returned to normal following the lockdown and industrial areas reopened.
Sheikha Alanoud stated that the latest figure from the PMI indicated that the business conditions in the non-energy private sector segment of the economy improved in a sustained manner to touch the third-highest figure in over two years.
“The recent trend in the data is consistent with a decline in gross domestic product or GDP of 4.6% in the second quarter, followed by a strong rebound of 4.3% in the third quarter,” QFC Business Development GM stated while adding that the performance of Doha’s non-energy private sector is an affirmation of the COVID-19 stimulus package.
Earlier, the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management (for combating COVID-19) has announced a huge $20.6 billion stimulus package to support the private sector. The package included measures to provide business continuity with exemptions of customs duty on food and medicines along with payment holidays for the utilities and rent.
“This has assisted in maintaining fiscal integrity and allowed central bank reserves to grow in 2020,” Sheikha Alanoud maintained.
