New market study, "Qatar Business Forecast Report Q1 2011", has been published

Jan. 7, 2011 - PRLog -- Best Growth Story In The Gulf

We continue to see Qatar as one of MENA's best growth stories, with a great economic outlook, relatively stable political risk profile and a consistently improving business environment. A host of achievements throughout 2010, such as its reaching the 77bcm liquefied natural gas (LN G) production capacity target and winning the bid for the 2022 World Cup, are backing up our positive medium-term outlook and underpin our bullish growth over the coming years, with oil and gas exports continuing to drive economic expansion. That said, we expect the expansionary pace of LNG production to slow down beyond 2011, with the main focus of policymakers shifting to development of the non-hydrocarbon sector.

Qatar has one of the highest long-term political risk ratings in the Middle East and North Africa (64.0 out of 100), reflecting limited threats to stability, backed up by impressive wealth. We do not see any significant opposition to the regime developing, with the population generally satisfied with the quality of life, and finding limited motivation to interfere with the day-to-day running of government. Furthermore, expatriate workers (accounting for almost 80% of the total population) have limited political rights, and also lack any strong national identity. Consequently, we see the risk of a rebellion against the regime as unlikely, with any changes to the status quo only being possible should they be initiated by the state.

Our optimistic view on Qatar's economic growth potential is underpinned by the country's ambitious projects covering both the energy sector as well as the private non-hydrocarbon economy. Indeed, while oil and gas exports will continue to be the main driver of the economy's outperformance relative to its regional counterparts, the government's focus is slowly shifting to large-scale investments in the private sector, particularly infrastructure. We forecast economic growth to continue at an impressive pace over the coming years, and pencil in real GDP growth to come in at 17.2% y-o-y in 2011 (up from an estimated 15.9% in 2010), and easing through the remainder of our forecast period to average 8.7% between 2012-2015.

Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup is a positive development, which will increase the country's international exposure and help improve investor risk perceptions of the country. The stable political risk profile compared to most of its counterparts in the region confers upon Qatar a privileged position from an investment perspective. Ongoing development in both the hydrocarbon sector as well as in the private non-oil sector, combined with the government's ambitions of expansion on all fronts, indicate further investment opportunities, while incresaed international recognition certainly doesn't hurt either.

For more information or to purchase this report, go to:
-  http://www.fastmr.com/prod/106386_qatar_business_forecast...

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Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.