Qatars foreign investment falls 10.3% in Q1-18 MDPS

Mubasher: Qatar’s overseas investment retreated 10.3% year-on-year, or QAR 77.4 billion ($21.4 billion), for the first quarter of 2018, the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) reported on Tuesday.

Total foreign investments recorded QAR 676.4 billion ($187.2 billion) in the period between January to March, compared to QAR 753.8 billion ($208.7 billion) in Q1-17.

Since 5 June 2017, Qatar has been facing outflows of foreign customers' deposits after four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia cut their diplomatic and trade ties with the gas-rich state, accusing Qatar of financing terrorism. Doha forcefully denies the charges.

On quarterly base, overall foreign investments increased by QAR 28.4 billion in Q1-18, compared to QAR 648 billion in Q4-17, the survey highlighted.

By the end of the first three months of 2018, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the GCC nation retreated 6.5% year-on-year to QAR 123.1 billion during the three-month period ended last March.

Meanwhile, foreign direct investment abroad levelled up 0.3% to QAR 146 billion in the same period of the previous year, the ministry's data showed.

The survey targeted some of the largest enterprises in the private sector which accounted for 84% of the value of inward FDI of non-banking enterprises in 2016, while Qatar Central Bank (QCB) surveyed all financial institutions under its supervision.

As for Qatar’s assets with non-residents, they decreased 7% to QAR 402.5 billion in the January-March period of this year, versus QAR 433 billion in the same period a year earlier.