Qatar's losses estimated at $30B after Arab diplomatic rift

CAIRO – 5 June 2017: Qatar will likely lose around $30 billion after six Arab countries decided Monday to cut their diplomatic ties with the Gulf country, in addition to the impact on trade exchange, banking sources told Egypt Today.

Earlier in the day, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain

cut diplomatic ties

with Qatar over "its continuous support for terrorism," closing their airspace and seaports to Qatari transportation.

Later, Yemen and the eastern government of Libya joined the four Arab countries and also cut diplomatic relations with Qatar on similar charges.

Cancelling several Doha-bound Arab flights will impose trade isolation on Qatar and will increase the inflation rate in the country, the sources said.

The latest Egyptian-Qatari trade exchange figures range between LE 1.5 billion and LE 2 billion, they noted, saying the number is small compared to those with Egypt’s leading trade partners.

Cairo received about $1.5 billion in loans from Doha in 2012, but it paid them back by October 1, 2014, Minister of Finance Amr El-Garhy told Egypt Today on Monday.

According to Reuters,

Qatar's stock market plunged

at the opening on Monday, with its index sinking 5.7 percent in the first five minutes of trade. Some of the market's top blue chips were hit hardest, with Vodafone Qatar, the most heavily traded stock, sliding 8.9 percent.