DOHA: H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, Minister of Economy and Commerce announced in New York yesterday that Qatar enjoys the highest rate of savings in world, which is equivalent to 56 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Despite volatile global energy prices, Qatar’s real GDP is growing at a rate of 4.1 percent, a rate that far exceeds the global average growth, Sheikh Ahmed said while addressing a high-profile global investment forum in the US.
The lower energy prices may be a good news for energy importing countries, but declining global oil prices will have negative impact on the aggregate demand in energy producing countries and their planned expenditure, he said.
“The decline in commodity prices has left a varying and conflicting impacts on the global economy where on one hand, perhaps consumers feel complacent about the low energy bills, but this decline on the other hand will weaken the purchasing power of the energy producing countries and thus affect their investment plans,” QNA reported the minister as saying.
He also warned that volatile energy prices and slower global economic recovery would have far-reaching effects on investment and growth, especially on oil and gas production in the fields of high cost of oil and gas extraction.
The Minister stressed that the global growth will be adversely affected in the coming years unless the formulation of sound policies and measures have been adopted to fill gaps resulting from lower revenues and thus lower capital spending in commodity-producing countries.
The Minister, speaking as one of the keynote speakers at the forum organized by International Economic Alliance Council on Foreign Relations in New York, on the sidelines of the ongoing 70th Session of the UN General Assembly, under the slogan “the path to prosperity”, underlined Qatar’s keenness to continue as a strong and active partner in the field of international investment.
He highlighted Qatar’s success in protecting its national economy from the consequences of falling oil prices, through
the diversification of global investment portfolio and development of non-oil sectors, such as services and advanced technology sector as well as manufacturing sectors in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Sheikh Ahmed also noted that the forum’s theme touches on one of the most prominent issues and challenges faced by the contemporary international economy, which is lower prices for energy and raw materials products. T
here are forecasts that global growth is expected to fall about 2.5 percent in 2015, against 2.8 percent drop in 2014. There are also forecasts by another section of analysts who expects a recovery may be in sight, but will be accompanied by a decline in GDP growth during 2016.
The Peninsula
