DOHA: Qatar is the world’s top-saving country, leading a list dominated by petroleum powers in the Middle East and emerging nations in the Far East, Forbes magazine said quoting the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Qatar’s gross national savings, which is a measure that accounts for both private and public savings, is 59 percent of its gross domestic product. Kuwait and China also save over half of their GDPs. Of the top 15 countries that are the world’s top savers, 11 have economies based on oil.
“This reflects the fact that at this moment, oil prices are very high,” said Zubair Iqbal, former assistant director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department. “These are small economies who are vulnerable to large fluctuations in oil prices, so they tend to save amounts that are a lot higher so that they can practise countercyclical policies.”
The Peninsula
