Let’s Look beyond Qatar: GarGash
UAE minister says new and stronger regional relationships will emerge from the Gulf crisis
dubai — A new set of relationships would emerge from the present Qatar crisis, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash said on Wednesday.
“We have to go on without Qatar, a conservative Gulf monarchy, in (a) totally anachronistic place. Promoting policies and values it does not practise,” Gargash wrote on Twitter.
Four Arab countries boycotting Qatar have added 18 more groups and individuals that they say are linked to Doha to their terrorist lists. Qatar said the decision was “a disappointing surprise”.
The boycotting countries want Qatar to cut back ties with Iran, close down a Turkish military base in Qatar and shut Al Jazeera TV channels.
Gargash said the four states represent the core Arab policy of confronting extremism and terrorism, and working for Arab security and stability. “Barring Qatar’s review of past policies, current state will continue for a while. New regional relationships will emerge & strengthen,” Gargash tweeted.
Now that the Qatar crisis has taken so long, Gargash said it is important to look beyond and think of it as an opportunity for a new set of relationships in the Gulf.
Meanwhile, foreign deposits at Qatar’s banks fell the most in almost two years last month as customers withdrew funds following the diplomatic row.
Non-resident deposits with the 18 lenders in the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporting nation dropped 7.6 per cent to 170.6 billion riyals ($47 billion) in June from a month earlier, according to data posted on the Qatar Central Bank’s website on Wednesday. The decline is the biggest since November 2015, the data show. Overall deposits climbed 1.1 per cent in June helped by a jump in domestic funds.
doha — Foreign deposits at Qatar’s banks fell the most in almost two years last month as customers withdrew funds following a diplomatic row with four Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia.
Non-resident deposits with the 18 lenders in the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas exporting nation dropped 7.6 per cent to 170.6 billion riyals ($47 billion) in June from a month earlier, according to data posted on the Qatar Central Bank’s website on Wednesday. The decline is the biggest since November 2015, the data show. Overall deposits climbed 1.1 per cent in June helped by a jump in domestic funds.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting extremist groups. Qatar denies the charge. Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, has placed billions of dollars in deposits in local banks since then to shore up liquidity and soften the blow, people familiar with the development said last month.
“Qatar’s domestic liquidity was expected to come under pressure due to the diplomatic rift, given that Qatar banks have grown more reliant on external funding in light of lower energy prices,” Carla Slim, an economist for the Middle East and North Africa at Standard Chartered Plc, said in an email.
The slide in non-resident holdings, which account for 22 per cent of overall deposits, comes even after local lenders raised interest rates to try and attract foreigners. The Qatar three-month interbank offered rate, a benchmark used to price some loans, climbed to 2.52 per cent on July 17, the highest since at least September 2010, when Bloomberg began collecting the data.
Overall bank credit within Qatar fell 0.6 per cent in June to 780 billion riyals, according to the data. Qatar has a $200 billion spending plan in preparation for the 2022 soccer World Cup.
Efforts to resolve the standoff between Qatar and the Saudi-led alliance reached an impasse, a Gulf official with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have yet to respond to proposals by the US and the UK that aimed to start direct negotiations, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Qatar’s domestic liquidity was expected to come under pressure due to the diplomatic rift, given that Qatar banks have grown more reliant on external funding in light of lower energy prices Carla Slim, an economist