Qatar’s banking sector is the envy of many financial markets throughout the world. While Western banks are grappling with shrinking balance sheets, declining revenues, soaring borrowing costs and a dark cloud of economic uncertainty, Qatari banks have been riding the wave of a booming economy.
The small Middle Eastern country has enjoyed an astonishing run of economic growth, close to 20% for much of the past five years, and clocked the world’s highest growth rate in 2011 with real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 19%. While the International Monetary Fund is forecasting a slowdown in growth this year to 6% in light of the completion of most of the country’s major liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, Qatari banks are showing no signs of slowing down.
