Joseph Abraham joined Qatar’s Commercial Bank as group CEO in 2016, after eight years as CEO of ANZ Indonesia, arriving at a time of low oil prices and regional tension. He tells Kit Gillet about efforts to refocus the bank, as well as finding opportunities in adversity.
Low oil prices have dented Qatar's economic success story of late but its banks are thriving. Some are looking to domestic consolidation for the next phase of growth, others to foreign acquisitions, while a deal that will create the region’s biggest Islamic bank is in the pipeline. Kit Gillet reports.
As the Qatari economy begins to slow on the back of decreasing oil prices, liquidity in the country's banking system is feeling the squeeze. Ratings agencies have responded with downgrades, yet recent results are healthy as banks pursue new sources of growth.
Qatar is expected to post its first budget deficit in 15 years in 2016, exemplifying the difficulties faced by the oil-dependent economy. But, far from buckling under the pressure, the country is stepping up to the challenge of diversifying its economy and reining in public spending, as Kit Gillet reports.
Low oil prices could have hit Qatar's economy hard, but early action from the government appears to have shielded it from the worst of the impact. The country's central bank governor, Sheikh Abdulla Bin Saoud Al-Thani, tells Kit Gillet about how these changes and future plans will protect and strengthen the country's banking sector.
The drop in oil prices has not hit Qatar's economy particularly hard, and its central bank governor, Abdulla Bin Saoud Al-Thani, is looking to further diversification, a strong banking sector, infrastructure investment and closer ties with China to keep the country in the fast lane when it comes to economic growth.
With its guaranteed long-term liquefied natural gas revenues and ever-expanding array of foreign assets, Qatar boasts a profile that has set it apart from its Middle Eastern oil-exporting peers – even if it has found it necessary to curb some of its prodigious spending growth in the midst of weaker global oil prices seen in the past year.
US shale production has significantly altered the landscape of the global energy market. Ahead of the Institute of International Finance's annual spring meeting in Qatar, James King looks at how OPEC is responding to this seismic shift.
Having been upgraded from frontier to emerging market status by Morgan Stanley Capital International, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are certain to see increasing levels of investor interest, but they are also likely to be confronted with some new challenges.
Qatar's gross domestic product growth may be envied by much of the rest of the world, but the country's finance minister is not blinkered by the country's current economic success. As he explains to The Banker, the need to diversify the hydrocarbon-reliant economy is great, which is why he has just announced a record-breaking budget to this end.