Santhosh V. Perumal

The 1,000-day air and sea blockade has rather fastened Doha’s efforts to gear up its maritime infrastructure and allied sectors in order to provide extra cushioning for its economy, where import substitution is catching up, an indicator of growing self-sufficiency in some underlying sectors.

The 1,000-day air and sea blockade has rather fastened Doha’s efforts to gear up its maritime infrastructure and allied sectors in order to provide extra cushioning for its economy, where import substitution is catching up, an indicator of growing self-sufficiency in some underlying sectors.

The Qatar Financial Center (QFC) platform has made substantial progress in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into Qatar and promoting economic diversification, negating the 1,000 days of blockade.

An across the board selling – particularly within insurance, banks, consumer goods and telecom sectors – Wednesday dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange below 9,600 levels.

Islamic finance, which is a key economic pillar of Qatar, has been witnessing an “unprecedented” expansion and the assets within the sector saw a compounded annual growth of 8% since 2015 to reach $129bn in the first half of 2019.

Qatar's cost of living, based on consumer price index (CPI) inflation, declined 0.41% year-on-year in January 2020 mainly on fall in the indices of housing, utilities, recreation and communication, according to the official statistics.

Stronger selling, especially within the realty, industrials and telecom sectors, Tuesday dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange by more than 66 points.

The Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday saw local and Gulf retail investors turn bullish, but lost more than 128 points in its key barometer with QR7bn loss in capitalisation.