8 July 2019; MEMO: Qatar’s inward foreign investments have grown by 6.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, local media reported yesterday.
Quoting a joint study by the Qatari planning ministry and the country’s central, the media pointed out that the total foreign investments in Qatar had amounted to 722.6 billion Qatari riyals ($199.7 billion) at the end of the first quarter of 2019.
“Inward foreign investments to Qatar reached 677.7 billion Qatari riyals ($187.31 billion) at the end of the first quarter of 2018,” the official report pointed out, adding that the Gulf state’s inward investments were growing by 1.1 per cent on a quarterly basis. “Qatar’s foreign investment hit 714.7 billion riyals ($197.5 billion) at the end of the last financial year.”
The study explained that the inward foreign investments were amounting to “67.9 per cent of Qatar’s total 490.5 billion riyals ($135.6 billion) investment.”
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Qatar, the report noted, had reached 123.7 billion riyals ($34.2 billion), representing 17.4 per cent of the nation’s total investments. On the other hand, financial portfolio investments amounted to 105.6 billion riyals ($29.2 billion), registering 14.6 per cent of the Gulf state’s total annual investments.
The study was based on “comprehensive data” from major Qatari private companies as well as some state-owned enterprises, which jointly represented 84 per cent of the nation’s inward foreign investment.
Doha has been experiencing a fully-fledged blockade by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain since June 2017. The Arab countries have accused Qatar of “supporting terrorism,” but Doha has denied the accusation ever since.
