June 02, 2009

The global financial crisis has given Qatar an opportunity to showcase its fundamental strengths and come out of the crisis stronger, according to R Seetharaman, CEO of Doha Bank.In his speech at the Qatar Economic Forum on the Trends in the Banking Industry in Qatar and the Gulf, Seetharama said the Qatari economy as well as the banking sector had registered significant growth, while the developed economies are expected to slow down their growth owing to the financial crisis.

At the macro level, the economy has achieved a real growth estimated at 16 percent in 2008, and growth is projected to continue in 2009 at a rate of seven percent at a time when the developed economies are expected to slowdown their growth to a rate not exceeding two per cent in the year 2009.The real growth rates in the GCC are also not expected to exceed 2 percent in 2009 according to the outlooks of the IMF.