Nobody can complain that Qatar does not look after its citizens. Or that its rulers are not leading the once-backwater of the region to unprecedented growth, almost defying the global economic downward trend.

As a recent IMF report noted, Qatar’s economy has grown sixfold in the past ten years alone, and the country is awash with cash, trade surpluses and foreign reserves. READ MORE HERE

In the eyes of the International Monetary Fund, the greatest risk facing Qatar is a worsening of global liquidity and financing conditions. Individual banks, especially those that rely on large wholesale funding might face liquidity pressures and either have to resort to the central bank for dollar funding or deleverage, warns the IMF, apart from in foreign reserves of the central bank and lower valuation of Qatar’s external assets portfolio. READ MORE HERE

January 15, 2012

A year after HSBC released its 2050 report which estimated that Egypt would surpass Saudi Arabia as the largest economy in the Middle East, the bank has dug deeper in its crystal ball-gazing research.

The first report limited its forecast to the world’s 30 largest economies by 2050 - but has now expanded it to 100 nations and includes more Middle East nations.
And like the first edition of the report, there are a few surprises. READ MORE HERE

Opec countries will rake in $900-billion this year. But these outstanding figures mask great turmoil facing group members in the next few
years.

With Brent crude comfortably over $100 a barrel, oil exports of OPEC countries this year will amount to nearly $900 billion, a 38%
increase over 2010, according to the Centre for Global Energy Studies. READ MORE HERE

In the first part of the 2012 regional economic prospects, a look at oil-rich countries’ efforts to manage their citizens’ expectations, economic slowdown and regional and domestic political upheavals in the New Year.

The year 2011 was probably the most unexpected for the Middle East in decades with not just the magnitude of changes unravelling in the region, but also the sheer number of those cataclysmic changes. READ MORE HERE

Excerpt from Citibank report:

In October this year, $16.9bn of projects were awarded across MENA. On a cumulative basis, just over $82bn of projects have been awarded across the region in the year to end October. This compares favourably with FY10 when almost $80bn of projects were awarded. Saudi Arabia is the main driving force accounting for a third of the 2011 total. Iraq accounts for 20%.The UAE has awarded almost $14bn in the year to end October, almost $20bn below FY10.
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EFG-Hermes believes an MSCI upgrade of UAE and Qatar exchanges to emerging market status is unlikely but not impossible. If the upgrade does happen, both markets could tap into an estimated $280Bn of emerging market funds.
The markets have been buoyant recently in anticipation that MSCI will upgrade both UAE and Qatar to emerging market status on December 14. READ MORE HERE

• 25 Rapid Growth Markets (RGMs) to grow by an average of 6.2% this year and by 5.9% in 2012, compared with 1.6% growth for the Eurozone this year falling to 0.6% next year.

• Qatar had the highest nominal GDP (US$) per capita at PPP in 2010 among the 25 RGMs and has also been the fastest growing economy over the last decade, with an average growth of 13%.

The dynamics of the global economy have changed with a new set of fast-growing markets challenging the position of the established advanced economies. The rapid growth markets (RGMs) are expected to grow collectively by 6.2% this year, almost four times more than the anemic growth expected in the Eurozone according to Ernst & Young’s new quarterly Rapid Growth Markets Forecast (RGMF).
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While their global counterparts slash and burn, Gulf banks are collectively set for their best year - ever — according to KAMCO.

While major blue-chip banks across the world are cutting back, shedding staff, deleveraging and recoiling at the thought of major sovereign defaults in Euroland, Gulf banks have quietly bulked up. Their prudence has allowed them to escape much of the crisis facing the global financial services industry, and they have benefited from great government support that has ensured they lived through the soul-crushing global financial crisis of 2008. READ MORE HERE
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whsaito /Foter

Muscat-based United Securities has turned cautiously optimistic on the recent developments by global markets to contain the debt crises and on the back of better than expectation Q3 results in some market sectors.
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