#WeAreQatar: Our economy can easily withstand sanctions and blockades, says Finance Minister
If Qatar’s neighbouring countries felt they could easily bring Qatar to its knees by economically destabilising them, then they have been sorely mistaken.
Not only has share prices rebounded, HE the Minister of Finance Ali Sherif Al Emadi has said the country can easily defend its economy and currency against sanctions by other Arab states, reported Gulf Times.
He said the countries that had imposed sanctions on Qatar would also lose money because of the damage to business in the region.
“A lot of people think we’re the only ones to lose in this... If we’re going to lose a Dollar, they’ll lose a Dollar also,” Al Emadi was quoted as saying.
The sanctions disrupted flows of imports and other materials into Qatar and caused many foreign banks to scale back their business with the country.
But Al Emadi said the energy sector and economy of the world's top liquefied natural gas exporter were essentially operating as normal.
“We’re business as usual, and we’re open for business,” he said.
“We know we might have one or two challenges here and there, but this is a country that’s very resilient. We’ve the assets and security that we need.”
Though the Qatari riyal has come under pressure, Al Emadi said this was not a cause for concern.
“Our reserves and investment funds are more than 250% of gross domestic product, so I don’t think there’s any reason that people need to be concerned about what’s happening or any speculation on the Qatari riyal,” he was quoted as saying by the Middle East Monitor.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Qatar's financial markets stabilised after a week of losses as the government showed it had ways to keep the economy running in the face of sanctions by other Gulf states.
Although taken by surprise at the blockade, it was becoming clear that Qatar could prevent the economic damage from becoming critical. Some of its food factories are working extra shifts to process imports from nations outside the Gulf, such as Brazil, and shipping lines are operating via Oman instead of the UAE.
