S&P forecasts Qatar bank lending to continue to grow at 10-15 per cent annually

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services said today that it believes that the annual rate of growth in lending by Qatar’s banks will continue to be about 10-15 per cent.

“Qatari banks’ profitability will likely remain strong over the next 12 months, after outstripping levels reported by peers in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries over the past five years.

“High interest margins, although contracting; briskly increasing business volumes mainly on the back of the government’s investments; and banks’ generally low cost bases are the main factors fuelling this performance.”

“In this largely favourable environment and given the solid economic growth we forecast in Qatar over the next few years, we think lending will continue to increase by about 10%-15% per year.”

You can see the full report here:

http://www.standardandpoors.com/spf/upload/Events_EMEA/Qatari_banks_article.pdf?sp_mid=34645&sp_rid=25062

For more about Qatar banking, see www.meed.com