Qatar is able to continue to finance its position; but at a high price, as long as it has surplus money, relying on gas and oil revenues at current rates, its status remains extraordinary. The none wise decisions being made by Prince Tamim will eat much of its savings at the expense of funding its other political and military activities in the region. Which makes the management of the crisis costly and failed. Also, Qatar has done a great deal, including huge deals, to lobby international governments to pressure the four countries to restore ties. Indeed, the big powers - America, Germany, France, Britain, and Italy - have tried to mediate with Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Manama to lift the sanctions on Qatar and failed.
The emirate of Qatar, which supports terrorism and extremism in the Arab region, is witnessing economic blows one by one from the four Arab countries that have been supported by Doha, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain since its historic boycott on June 5.
Gulf and global economic reports have revealed that the anti-terrorism countries’ withdrawal of their deposits in Qatari banks is putting great pressure on the Doha banks and forcing the Qatari government to cover the shortage by injecting millions of dollars from its cash reserves to fill the deficit and face the liquidity crisis that has begun to worsen dramatically over the past few days.
The actions of the four countries have exacerbated the liquidity situation in Qatari banks, he said, adding that the deposits of Saudi and UAE entities in Qatari banks are gradually being withdrawn. Croustins told CNN that GCC deposits in the Qatari banking system are 25 to 30 billion US dollars, just over half of the total non-resident deposits at the end of 2016.
The Qatari economy continued to bleed as the efforts to reach a solution to the crisis resulting from the severing of relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt continued. The economic and logistic measures followed by the four countries led to the deterioration of the emirate’s economy, And the lack of major food commodities and the index of the country’s stock exchange during the past few days.
Economic data showed that the foreign funds sold more Qatari shares than they bought in the market while the Qatari stock market collapsed, with its market capitalization index falling below the 500 billion riyals barrier during the past two days amid selling pressure on foreign institutions quarter too.
The market capitalization of shares suffered losses of 1.74 billion riyals last Sunday, falling to 499.16 billion riyals from 500.9 billion riyals at the end of last Thursday’s session, bringing the losses incurred by the market to more than 33 billion riyals since the beginning of the province on June 5.Qatar’s general index fell 0.41% or 37.6 points to close at 9205.22 points, while the Islamic Rayan Index declined by 0.57% to close at 3674.5 points, and the index of all shares decreased by 0.37% to 2628.45 points.
Liquidity levels dropped significantly to 140.9 million riyals compared to 160.7 million riyals, compared with 300-400 million riyals before the crisis. Of the 40 stocks traded, 30 declined and Qatar Cinema was 7.41 percent. The company reported a 30.3 percent decline in profits in the second quarter of this year, driven by a decline in revenues to reach 2.76 million riyals or about 740.72 million riyals. Compared to 3.96 million riyals (about 1.06 million dollars) in the second quarter of last year. Doha Bank fell 2.86%, followed by Qatar Industrial Industries (2.3%), Al Meera Consumer Goods (1.77%), Qatar Fuel (1.57%) and Qatar International Islamic Bank (1.23%). And Vodafone Qatar by 1.12%.
Qatar Industries fell 0.43 percent after Qatar National Bank cut its target price to 109 riyals after the company reported a 47 percent decline in profits to 681.87 million riyals in the second quarter of last year.According to Qatar Exchange data, foreign institutions doubled their sales of Qatari shares, after realizing sales of about 14.5 million riyals against purchases of about 6.12 million riyals, while foreign individuals achieved sales of 12.7 million riyals versus 12.3 million purchases.
Qatar’s strategy in battle is to force the four countries to retreat rather than respond, and in the end, will yield to most of the demands regardless of what they say and try to do. Refuses to negotiate under the stated demands and principles, and wants free negotiations. The four countries are not forced to negotiate. The current situation is quite comfortable, especially as it is the opposite of the game against Qatar. The country was the source of problems and crises for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.
Now they are the ones that live in crisis because of these countries. Therefore, after pushing al-Ghali and Nafis to convince all the forces, and exhausted their media ammunition and incitement, and no one in its ranks against his government, Qatar will eventually negotiate within the framework of the six principles, and may retreat from the rest of its formal expectations, such as holding negotiations on neutral territory. All this could have been done in the first week of the crisis, and it would save itself a lot of trouble and embarrassment.
