Money supply in Qatar up 13 per cent

24 June 2008

Money supply in Qatar has risen by 13.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, indicating that inflation is likely to rise further as more cash enters the economy.

The M3 money supply figure, the broadest measure of all the cash in the economy, was up 37.6 per cent over the 12 months to the end of March.

Qatar’s inflation is already at 14.75 per cent for the first three months of 2008. In May, the government said it would review its spending in a bid to slow inflation (MEED 16:5:08).

The figures come just days after the Central Bank of the UAE revealed that during the first three months of the year M3 money supply in the emirates rose by 8.4 per cent.

The Qatar Central Bank figures also show that Qatar, which said in 2006 it wanted to diversify its foreign exchange reserves away from the dollar, has more than doubled its gold holdings from QR648.4m ($178.1m) to QR1.35bn over the past year.

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