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QNA
Doha
Qatar's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 2.5 percent in 2017 and 3.2 percent next year, compared with 3.1 percent and 3.2 percent respectively in the previous survey conducted in June, the Bloomberg news agency has reported.
Quoting economists, the report said the impact of the crisis would only be temporary on Qatari economy.
"Qatari officials will try to create confidence in the economy through plans to build food processing facilities near a new port and provide permanent residence for non-Qataris to attract investors and some skilled workers," says William Jackson, an emerging market economist at Capital Economics.
Jackson and Farouk Sousse, a Middle East economist at Citigroup, said growth forecasts for 2018 were independent of whether the boycott had been lifted from Qatar.
Qatar's economy will be the fastest growing among the GCC countries despite the diplomatic crisis and the slowdown in economic growth in 2017, Sousse said, pointing out that the forecast indicate the growth of the Saudi economy by 0.5 percent and the UAE by 2 percent
Sousse predicted that"the slowdown will disappear next year," stressing that the roads and trade routes will be fully restructured, confidence in the Qatari economy will be restored.
