DOHA: Despite the sharp decline in oil prices, Qatar’s general budget has achieved a surplus of more than QR 100 billion until the end of January 2015, said HE Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani.
In a speech at the MEED Qatar Projects conference 2015 held in Doha, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani said Qatar also managed to achieve QR 160 billion surplus in the current account in the balance of payments during the first nine months of 2014, stressing that the Qatari economy maintained its achievements of strong growth in previous years, particularly in the non-oil sectors.
The Qatar Central Bank is closely monitoring emerging risks to the financial system, particularly those related to inflation, which was contained to a large extent, as inflation ratio did not exceed 3 percent in 2014, he added, pointing out that the QCB continued to pursue policies that ensure monetary conditions and the amount of liquidity in the Qatar’s economy remain supportive for the growth while maintaining the stability of prices.
The global economic landscape has seen the emergence of new economic, financial and political challenges that left a negative impact on the global economy growth such as the fluctuations of financial markets and the decline in international oil prices as well as geopolitical tensions, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani said, adding that all of these posed unprecedented challenges in the State of Qatar, but Qatar managed by increasing its focus on supporting financial stability, economic diversification and coordination in fiscal and monetary policies in order to contribute to ensuring sustainable growth and achieving the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030.
HE QCB Governor pointed to the launch of a regulatory and supervisory bodies’ strategy for the financial markets and services sector in order to find a strong and effective financial regulatory framework to support economic prosperity and financial stability witnessed by the State of Qatar, adding that this strategy is based on six main pillars. These are significant progress in all of these pillars, he added.
