Qatar refuses to admit to its losses despite global downgrade

CAIRO - 1 September 2017: The Qatari ambassador to Venezuela, Batal Mojab al-Dosari, said on Friday his country plans to increase its investments globally and does not intend to liquidate its assets abroad. This came in response to Fitch's report on the expected decline in net foreign assets of the country.

Al-Dosari said Qatar's main investments were concentrated in Europe, but the Qatari Investment Authority plans to invest $35 billion in the United States by 2020.

International rating agency Fitch downgraded Qatar’s rating to AA- with a negative outlook, Reuters reported.

Fitch expected sovereign foreign assets to decline to 146 percent from the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017. Qatar’s GDP growth is also forecasted by Fitch to fall to 2 percent in 2017, 1.3 percent in fiscal year 2018/19, down from 2.2 percent in 2016.

On June 23, 2017, the four Arab states of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain requested 13 demands from Qatar, which were presented by Kuwait, the mediator in the crisis. The demands included that Qatar shut down Al-Jazeera TV network, cut diplomatic ties with Iran, stop financing and supporting terrorist groups, including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and end Turkey's military presence in Doha.