VICTOR BOLORUNDURO

DOHA

THE outlook for Qatar in the first quarter of 2012 continues to be strong among the business community despite the global economic downturn. However, optimism level in the non-oil and gas sector are marginally lower than in the previous quarter, says a study released on Monday.

According to Dun & Bradstreet’s Business Optimism Index (BOI) report released in partnership with the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Authority, the outlook for Qatar continues to be strong in the first quarter of 2012 since most of Qatar’s hydrocarbon exports over the medium-term have already been tied up in long-term contracts.

However, real hydrocarbon GDP will slow down to 3 percent in 2012 due to the country’s self-imposed moratorium on development of new hydrocarbon projects until 2015, the report said.

“Qatar’s economy proved to be resilient in the face of the crisis in 2008-09, and given its strong macroeconomic fundamentals, will continue to witness strong growth.

“The non-hydrocarbon sector has registered a 5-point drop to 40 in the composite score. All sectors have posted similar scores with respect to the composite index as in the previous quarter. The survey for the hydrocarbon sector shows that businesses expectations are stronger for Q1 2012,” said the General Manager for Middle East at Dun and Bradstreet South Asia Manjeet Chhabra at the presentation of the report, on Monday.

He said that in arriving at the results of the study, top management officials of over 500 companies representing different sectors of the economy were interviewed and the study was then divided into two main sectors, the hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon sectors of the economy.