Doha: The Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) foreign exchange (FX) reserves rose to $52.4bn in April. Qatar’s trade balance surplus remained healthy at $3.6bn in April, QNB’s “Qatar Monthly Monitor”, noted yesterday.
Qatar banks’ asset growth was 4.1 percent year-on-year in April. The credit growth was 4.0 percent year-on-year. Bank deposit growth was 0.8 percent for the month. Private sector, public sector deposits decreased respectively 0.6 percent, 15.1 percent while non-resident deposits increased 1.3 percent month-on-month in April.
Broad money supply (M2) declined 4.8 percent year-on-year in April and interbank rates remained stable. QIBOR 3-month interest rates remained stable while USD LIBOR 3- month interest rates drifted down.
Qatar’s real GDP grew by 0.3 percent year-on-year in fourth quarter of 2018. Non-hydrocarbon GDP growth was 2.4 percent during the period. Manufacturing production grew 2.2 percent year-on-year in March. The country’s fiscal account surplus widened to 3.4 percent of GDP in Q4.
The real estate price index was up 1.0 in April. 5-star and 4-star hotel occupancy rates rose to 68 percent and 70 percent respectively.
