Mubasher: Qatar’s balance of payments (BoP) deficit hiked 217.3% year-on-year in the full-year 2017.
The deficit amounted to QAR 65.07 billion ($18 billion) last year, compared to QAR 20.51 billion ($5.63 billion) a year earlier, the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) said in a statement on Thursday.
While the BoP deficit declined 58.1% to QAR 6.94 billion during the fourth quarter of 2017, versus QAR 16.57 billion in the same quarter in the year before, the QCB revealed.
The world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) posted current account surplus of QAR 23.4 billion in 2017 against QAR 30.1 billion in the prior year.
Since 5 June 2017, Qatar has been facing outflows of foreign customers' deposits after four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia cut their diplomatic and trade ties with the gas-rich state, accusing Qatar of financing terrorism. Doha forcefully denied the charges.
