Net profit of Qatar’s commercial bank slumps 47.3% in 9 months

CAIRO – 19 October 2017: The Commercial Bank of Qatar registered a 47.3 percent fall in net profit in the first nine months of 2017, standing at QAR 259 million, compared with QAR 491 million in the same period last year.

In comparison to the first nine months of 2016, the commercial bank recorded a 8.1 percent increase in total assets to reach QAR 134 million and a 2.4 percent decrease in the net operating income, recording QAR 2.6 billion.

The bank’s customer deposits increased 9.8 percent to QAR 73.3 billion during this period, compared with QAR 66.7 billion in the same period last year.

The diplomatic boycott announced by four Arab states has shaped burdens for the Qatari banking system. Pressure on foreign reserves was witnessed as the Qatari Central Bank noticed in July fund outflows from some non-residents.

Deposits of non-residents in Qatar dropped in 18 banks by 7.6 percent to QAR 170.6 billion ($47 billion) in June from a month earlier, according to the latest data from Qatar’s central bank.

Meanwhile, the threat experienced by Qatari banks after the diplomatic rift has started to ease, international rating agency Fitch said in a report this week.

Fitch explained that the cash outflow from Qatari banks was replaced by deposits from the public sector. Public-sector deposits hiked 10.5 percent to QAR 295 billion ($80 billion) in August, compared to QAR 267 billion in July, pushing the increase to QAR 53 billion since June 5.

Qatar is estimated to have used $38 billion to support its ailing economy, which is equivalent to 23 percent of the GDP in the first two months of the boycott, international rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said in September.