BUSINESS | 03BUSINESS | 02

Qatar Chamber to

hold general

assembly meeting

on Thursday

US economy may

need vaccine for

full recovery:

Fed’s Powell

B

Q

a

MONDAY 18 MAY 2020

BUSINESS

Combating COVID-19

Qatar offers great opportunity for long-term equity investors

SATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

As Qatar continues to combat COVID-19 pandemic and tries to reopen its economy without fuelling resurgence in corona-virus, top market experts are ‘cautiously optimistic’ on Qatari stock market. A long-term investor has numerous oppor-tunities across a number of sectors, they said yesterday.

Participating in a Webinar organised by Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) on “COVID-19, Oil and Outlook on Qatari Stocks” the expert panel noted that the global economy has started to resume activities and there is ‘nothing much to worry’ for long-term investors.

The panellists included Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Thani, Senior Vice President, Investment & Treasury, Qatar Insurance Company; Akber Khan, Senior Director, Al Rayan Investment; and Bassam Slim, Portfolio Manager, Aventicum. Mohsin Mujtaba, Director, Product and Market Development, QSE, was the moderator.

Sheikh Hamad said the recent plunge in oil prices was due to the storage fears. Oil

prices are expected to be stabi-lised at $50-$70 range in long-term. “The current stress in the market is a 6-12 month game,” he said. On Qatari economy, he stressed the need for a ‘bal-anced budget’, instead of going for a deep cut in spending. A severe budget cut will poten-tially have negative impact, he added.

On Qatar’s stock market outlook, Sheikh Hamad said there is nothing to worry for long-term investors. Currently,

there are lot of uncertainties about where the market is really heading to. Even the well-capitalised global companies with good business models are facing crisis. “We need to get the second quarter data to under-stand where the market is really going . But i don’t think long-term investors need to worry a lot,” he said.

“The second quarter and third quarter results will tell you more about the dividends. It’s very complicated market at the moment,” he said.

Akber Khan of Al Rayan Investment said : “ While uncer-tainty defines the coming months, the longer term investment case for Qatar is more promising. Assuming the FIFA World Cup 2022 runs as scheduled, in less than two years, the country should begin to benefit from a surge in the population that should last at least a year.....Later on in the decade, a 60 percent jump in LNG output will materially boost the State’s income. a long term investor has numerous opportunities across a number of sectors”

Akber noted COVID-19 has caused operational disruption

for most businesses in Qatar; some have been mildly impacted, while others have seen all revenues disappear due to lock-down measures. While petrochemical producers have not been hit operationally, demand for many of their products has collapsed leading prices to plunge. On the stock market outlook, he said it depends on the pace major economies re-open and then speed with which activity is restored. “its likely to be a very

challenging period.”Highlighting the resilience of

of Qatari economy, Akber said over the last five years, Qatar has had to face enormous crises: the 2014-15 collapse of oil to $30, the 2017 blockade by the Gulf neigh-bours and now the disastrous combination of global pandemic and $20-$30 oil. At the time of the blockade, overnight, Qatar was forced to re-create supply chain and multi-sourcing became the norm. “This has meant authorities have had one less headache in 2020 as the nation has remained fully supplied despite global dislocations. the same cannot be said for many major economies.”

Aventicum’s Bassam Slim said he would take a cautious approach to Qatari stocks. “ I am cautiously optimistic on Qatari equities. Now, we have the lock-down and got the numbers. We are heading to a phased reopening. But we can’t predict anything in the event of a second wave of pandemic.... and we don’t know what exactly is going to happen to the local companies. Different com-panies in the same sector are behaving in a different ways,” Bassam added.

Akber Khan, Senior Director-Asset Management, Al Rayan Investment

Bassam Slim, Portfolio Manager, Aventicum.

British Business Secretary Alok Sharma holds the daily news conference with NHSE Medical Director, Professor Stephen Powis, on the coronavirus disease outbreak, at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain yesterday.

Google, Microsoft data centre projects to boost Qatar’s IT sector: Cushman & WakefieldLANI ROSE R DIZON THE PENINSULA

The proposed data centre projects by Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure under the Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZA) will not only allow the public sector and private com-panies, especially financial services to become more effi-cient compared to their global peers, but will also boost Qatar’s IT sector.

The high-profile move which is expected to further attract foreign investment into the country, may also result in a higher demand for office space, Cushman & Wakefield has said in its First Quarter (Q1) Real Estate Market Review.

In its latest report, the global real estate services firm said that Qatar’s commercial office market is yet to be fully affected by the COVID-19 pan-demic. Except for a reduction in the number of new enquiries for office accommodation since mid-March, the initial impact of Covid-19 on the commercial office market has been limited to date. That is mainly due to activity in the sector being driven by lease events such as lease expiries, which still need to be acted upon.

In general, the lockdown

has not affected the com-mercial office market as much as the retail sector. Tenants are still able to access their offices, subject to government guidelines of reduced staffing and hours; therefore, there have not been multiple announcements by landlords on rent relief.

Some prospective new office occupiers are now con-sidering serviced office options instead of conventional office accommodation, as a short-term measure, while market uncertainty prevails.

The total supply in the office market is now approximately 4.9 million sqm, with the prime sector accounting for 49 percent of this space. The vacancy rate has increased to over 30 percent in prime office districts, largely due to the increase in new supply in Lusail and Msheireb over the past 12 months.

As for Qatar’s hospitality market overview, the report reiterated that tourist arrivals in February 2020 exceeded those of 2019 both by air and sea. Unfortunately, the enforced government restrictions on international travel into Qatar resulted in a fall-off in arrival numbers from March 17.

Hotel performance figures

during first quarter will not capture the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tourism sectors. The hospitality sector was the first to feel the implications of the Covid-19 measures in both room bookings and restaurant revenues.

Long term residential lets at the hotels with serviced apartments helped mitigate the revenue hit to some degree.

The pandemic is also affecting the construction sector, which is likely to result in fewer hotels than expected being delivered this year.

According to the National Tourism Council’s 2019 report, last year saw continued growth in the sector, with a 9 percent increase in occupancy rates, despite the increase in overall supply. Visitor numbers reached 2.14 million, up 17 percent from 2018.

This included a 98 percent growth in visitors on cruise ships, a key growth market in the tourism sector. Hotel supply increased to 27,261 keys in 130 establishments by January 2020, a 6 percent increase on the previous year. The market is dominated by five-star brands, which make up 56 percent of the overall supply. �P2

Tesla says plant Musk reopened finally has county’s approvalBLOOMBERG

Tesla Inc told employees that a California county health official has now signed off on safety measures the company took last week at its car plant as it restarted production in defiance of the area’s shutdown order.

The Alameda County health officer’s approval means Tesla has local support to resume full production starting this week, Laurie Shelby, the company’s envi-ronmental, health, and safety vice president, wrote in an email to staff Saturday that was viewed by Bloomberg News. Representatives for Tesla and the county didn’t respond to queries outside regular business hours.

The county’s authorization could resolve a highly conten-tious episode in which Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters and future programs out of California and sued the county over its health officer’s resistance to reopening the factory in Fremont.

Lebanon to reopen economy from todayREUTERS — BEIRUT

Lebanon will gradually reopen its economy beginning today, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said, following a four-day shutdown imposed after a rise in corona-virus cases threatened a second wave of the outbreak.

Already in the throes of a deep economic crisis, Lebanon began easing virus-related restrictions on business late last month to try to restore some economic activity. But that plan was paused last week after a

rise in new cases.Lebanon has been relatively

successful reining in the out-break since a mid-March lockdown that set an overnight curfew and shut most business and air travel. The country of about 6 million people has recorded 911 infections and 26 deaths.

In a televised address yes-terday, Diab said the economy would resume its gradual re-opening, but warned Lebanese to adhere strictly to health and safety guidelines that had been

flouted during the initial attempt.

“We do not want this stage to turn into a nightmare, and we will not accept that all Leb-anese pay the price for some irresponsible and indifferent behaviours,” said Diab.

A five-stage plan for resuming economic activity unveiled last month envisages most economic activity restored after a final period beginning on June 8. Lebanon has not set a date for the re-opening of its airport for commercial flights.

02 MONDAY 18 MAY 2020BUSINESS

Belgium eases lockdown

Qatar Chamberto hold general assembly meeting on ThursdayTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Qatar Chamber (QC) will hold its general assembly meeting (GAM) on Thursday at 12 noon.

The meeting, which will be chaired by QC Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim al Thani, will be held through video conference technology.

The QC said that due to the current circumstances and in adherence with the precau-tionary measures taken to curb the outbreak of coronavirus, this year’s GAM would be held electronically.

QC Director-General Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi (pic-tured) called on businessmen and the chamber’s members to register for attending the meeting, and noted that the registration is ongoing through the Chamber’s website www.qatarchamber.com.

He added that the regis-tration will be open until the meeting day and will close one hour before the meeting on May 21. After the registration, each member will receive a link to follow up and participate in the meeting.

Al Sharqi pointed out that if a quorum is not achieved

during the first meeting, the second meeting would be held on June 8 regardless of the number of attendees.

The meeting’s agenda includes the reviewing of the board of director’s report on the activities of Qatar Chamber for the year ended December 31, 2019.

The meeting’s agenda also includes a discussion on Qatar Chamber’s fiscal report for the year ending December 31, 2019 through the auditor’s report on the final accounts, and the statement of income and expenses for the same period; and the approval of the estimated budget for the fiscal year 2020, and the appointment of a new auditor for the financial year 2020, QC added in a statement.

Investors prepare for more US stock swings as states reopenREUTERS — NEW YORK

Investors are bracing for more turbulence in US stocks, as some states prepare to reopen their economies and global trade tensions rise.

The Cboe Volatility Index, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, posted its biggest weekly gain in about two months, reflecting the S&P 500 index’s 2.6 percent slide from its April 29 high. VIX futures have jumped as well, with investors pricing elevated risk into June contracts.

Whether recent losses in stocks resulted from profit taking after April’s swift rally or were the start of a prolonged decline may become more apparent in weeks to come, investors said.

Many are watching progress of U..states trying to reopen their economies without fueling a resurgence in coronavirus cases. Parts of New York, Vir-ginia and Maryland moved toward lifting lockdowns on Friday, and Connecticut and Minnesota are set to ease restrictions in the coming week.

“We don’t know what the new normal will be,” said Alessio de Longis, portfolio manager at Invesco. “The man-aging of expectations will lead to some false steps along the way.” For now, a pile-up of worrying domestic and inter-national news prompted investors to pull back on equities after the S&P 500 in April notched its best monthly gain in decades.

US President Donald Trump

has ratcheted up rhetoric on China, floating the possibility of cutting ties with the world’s second-largest economy. The White House on Friday moved to block shipments of semicon-ductors to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from global chipmakers, which could put pressure on a global economy already suf-fering its deepest contraction in decades.

Hopes for a speedy return to normal took another hit when California’s state uni-versity system canceled classes for the fall semester because of the coronavirus and Los Angeles County said its stay-at-home order was likely to be extended by three months.

“What we’re seeing now is the wash of realism coming over the market,” said Shannon

Saccocia, chief investment officer at Boston Private.

The VIX on Monday touched its lowest level since late Feb-ruary before reversing course as expectations for market vol-atility grew later in the week.

Concerns over economic reopening are reflected in the VIX futures curve, which shows investors betting volatility will be elevated in coming weeks, rather than later in the summer, said Christopher Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna Financial Group.

The curve has fluctuated in shape over the past week. Tomorrow, front-month VIX futures traded at higher prices than futures expiring in subse-quent months, reflecting heightened concern over

near-term conditions. While that is no longer the case for now, VIX futures are broadly pricing in higher volatility than they were a week ago.

Several investors are posi-tioning for further turbulence by shunning value sectors such as energy and financials in favor of technology and healthcare, two areas that have held up rel-atively well during recent market turmoil.

Andrew Graham, managing partner at Jackson Square Capital in San Francisco, has focused on stocks he believes can maintain high dividend yields, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. His firm owns shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, AbbVie Inc and Merck & Co Inc.

Investors will also watch the

US Treasury Department’s first auction for its 20-year bond on Wednesday. Treasury plans to borrow a record amount of nearly $3trillion this quarter.

Some investors said they were likely to keep equities at a slight underweight in their portfolios given the likelihood of further declines.

Dave Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, believes the recent stock rally did not factor in the likelihood of businesses oper-ating below their usual capacity even if states reopened their economies.

“Yes, there’s going to be a strong growth rate from the bottom, but the place we’re getting back to is going to be subpar for a while,” Lafferty said.

BoE examines negative ratesBLOOMBERG

The Bank of England is exam-ining unconventional monetary policy measures more urgently amid the economic slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to its Chief Economist Andrew Haldane (pictured).

The central bank is reviewing a number of policies -- including negative interest rates and expanding the scope of the bank’s asset-purchase plan to include riskier securities -- as it is running low on con-ventional easing space, Haldane said in an interview with the Telegraph. He stressed that the BOE isn’t poised to impose any of those polices imminently.

“It’s something we’ll need to look at -- are looking at -- with somewhat greater imme-diacy,” Haldane said when

asked if borrowing costs could go below zero. “You mention negative rates, but there are other options beyond that, or alongside that, that we’re looking at as well.”

“With QE there is more we can do there on the gilt side and the corporate-bond side in principle -- as we’ve found from other central banks, you could purchase assets further down the risk spectrum,” he

added. “I don’t want to imply we’re poised on any of those but we have over a number of years been reviewing all of our options for more, if more is needed.”

While the European Central Bank and other institutions have already cut rates below zero, the debate about the effectiveness of negative rates has gathered pace amid market speculation the Federal Reserve and BOE may have to follow suit to ramp up their response to the pandemic.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell dismissed the prospect last week, though he didn’t fully rule out the option as a potential tool in the future. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey has made similar comments, saying that while negative rates weren’t some-thing being contemplated, it was important not to rule any-

thing out forever.The BOE’s benchmark

interest rate stands at 0.1 percent and taking it negative would present a communica-tions challenge and prove dif-ficult for banks, Bailey said. That, in turn, could undermine the BoE’s ability to influence borrowing costs across the economy.

The track record of negative rates “quite simply, is poor and provides plenty of circum-stantial evidence that their damage to confidence and financial stability far outweighs the benefits,” Andrew Sheets, chief cross-asset strategist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note published on Sunday.

Haldane also warned that the UK is heading toward an unemployment crisis compa-rable to the one experienced in the early 1980s.

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks by a clothing store in Brussels, on Saturday, the first weekend after Belgium eased lockdown measures in place to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus. Stores considered non-essential re-opened in Belgium on May 11, 2020.

India plans to

suspend new

bankruptcy

filings for a year

BLOOMBERG

India won’t allow most companies to be tipped into bankruptcy for a year as authorities try to contain the economic fallout of the coro-navirus outbreak.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the plan yesterday as part of her speech to revive economic activity. Also, the minimum threshold to initiate insolvency proceedings have been raised to 10 million rupees ($132,000) from 100,000 rupees previ-ously, and will largely insulate small businesses, she said.

The move risks delaying the clean up of the world’s worst stressed-loan ratio as creditors will be forced into lengthy debt resolution nego-tiations outside the bankruptcy framework. It may also slow fresh credit that’s vital to reverse the course of an economy set for a rare con-traction as the pandemic stalls economic activity at jewelers to developers.

The measures will help small business who were “reaching a stage of bank-ruptcy,” Sitharaman told reporters in New Delhi. “All this had been kept in mind when we are addressing the issues.” Bankruptcies in India are expected to climb as the coronavirus outbreak hits dis-tressed companies harder in Asia’s third-largest economy. India has been under a strict lockdown since March 25 with some easing on April 20 and then May 4.

“It will ultimately hamper the recovery prospects of financial institutions in cases of existing defaults,” said Sumant Batra, who heads the insolvency and corporate advisory practice at law firm Kesar Dass B. & Associates.

Sitharaman, in her fifth briefing, on measures to support the economy, listed a package totaling about Rs21 trillion ($277bn) to help businesses and individuals get back on their feet following a lockdown to contain COVID-19.

Australia's construction activity to drop by 10% BLOOMBERG

Australia’s commercial construction activity will collapse as the impact of Covid-19 wipes out private demand for new building works, a national industry body said.

Master Builders Australia expects commercial building activity to be 15.7 percent lower in the fiscal year to June 30, 2021, than it previously was forecasting, according to an e-mailed statement from the body. The group predicts a decline of 11.5 percent from prior estimates for the 12 months ending mid-2022.

“The lockdown has oblit-erated private sector demand in the economy and a gradual easing of restrictions is not going to replace that demand, so governments need to act,” said Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia. “Logical areas where gov-ernment stimulus can help build the bridge to recovery are where the public sector dominates, such as in edu-cation, health and defense.” Australia reported a record

594,000 jobs were lost in April, underscoring the Reserve Bank of Australia’s forecast that the economy is likely to shrink about 10 percent in the first half of this year.

A construction industry gauge dropped in April to a record 21.6, smashing the December 2008 nadir of 29.2. The index has been under 50, indicating the industry is in contraction, since September 2018.

The country is deploying fiscal and monetary stimulus exceeding A$320bn ($205bn), or 16 percent of gross domestic product. Those measures are overwhelmingly aimed at keeping businesses afloat to limit employment losses, or at offering greater support than usual to individuals who are out of work.

Much of the public-infra-structure spending in Australia is carried out by state and ter-ritory governments, which have boosted borrowings since the RBA started buying federal and provincial government bonds in late March to hold down yields.

Google and Microsoft data centre projects to boost Qatar’s IT sector

FROM BUSINESS PAGE 1

There are currently 107 hotel and hotel apartment buildings under construction in Qatar, which will provide 21,577 additional rooms. This will bring total supply to almost 50,000 rooms by 2022, a figure which will be supplemented by floating hotels and cruise ships for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Average Daily Rates in Qatar’s hotels fell by 2 percent in 2019 reflecting increased com-petition and better value available in the market.

The increase in occupancy last year, and a reduction in ADR’s reflected an overall increase in Revenue Per Average Room of 7 percent. The improving performance will undoubtedly be interrupted in 2020 by the COVID-19 epi-demic, with uncertainty pre-vailing about how and when the hospitality sector can fully recover.

One of the retail segments which has been performing well in Qatar during the COVID-19 pandemic is the supermarket sector and certain parts of the F&B sector. Omni-channel F&B

outlets have been able to manage the transition better than others, while the other retailers and malls have been adjusting to enable their online and phone ordering sales channels.

To deal with the crisis, support measures have been announced by government and private entities, varying from three to six months’ rent relief. Some landlords have also granted their F&B tenants relief from rent and service/utility charges until further notice.

The report added that while rent relief has been welcomed by tenants throughout the market, other operating costs cannot be serviced by sales rev-enues this time, which is raising questions about the number of retailers that may struggle to remain open in a prolonged lockdown.

Qatar’s residential real estate sector is still active despite the COVID-19 restric-tions, the report added. Resi-dential leases continued to expire, with renewals and re-locations driving the market activity. Some residential occu-piers are using this time to take advantage of the recent fall in

rents to upgrade their current accommodation.

Despite the support measures introduced by the gov-ernment, employers in some industries have been forced to furlough staff, reduce salaries, or in some cases make people redundant. While no official policy has been introduced on residential rent relief, some res-idential landlords have started negotiating with tenants on deferring rental payments or granting temporary discounts.

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) recently announced that individual land-lords or companies who own multiple, adjacent, fully furnished units within villa compounds, apartment blocks or mixed-use schemes would potentially be able to avail of a five-year lease with the SC with a start date of either January 1, 2022 or August 1, 2021. This is likely to prove attractive to many landlords given the pipeline of new supply. The SC has set out strict require-ments relating to quality and specification, which should help to improve overall standards when these properties return to the market after the World Cup.

Thailand’s government has ordered that malls will have to close by 8pm and that areas where large numbers of people could gather such as movie theatres and bowling alleys must remain closed.

“For the economy to fully recover, people will have to be fully confident and that may have to await the arrival of a vaccine,” he said.

03MONDAY 18 MAY 2020 BUSINESS

US economy mayneed vaccine forfull recovery:Fed’s Powell AFP - WASHINGTON

The world’s top economy may not see a full recovery without a vaccine to treat COVID-19, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (pictured) said yesterday.

After more than 30 million jobs were destroyed, as busi-nesses were shuttered nationwide, the central bank chief warned it may take time to return to normal.

“I think you’ll see the economy recover steadily through the second half of this year,” Powell said in an interview with the CBS news programme “60 Minutes,” part of which was broadcast yes-terday morning.

But “it’s going to take a while for us to get back,” he said. “It could stretch through the end of next year. We really don’t know.”

Asked about the need for a vaccine to treat the illness and put a stop to the coronavirus pandemic, Powell stressed the importance of consumers to the economy.

“For the economy to fully recover, people will have to be fully confident and that may have to await the arrival of a vaccine,” he said.

The Fed rushed in even before the economic lock-downs were fully in place, slashing the benchmark lending rate and pumping tril-lions of dollars into the

financial system and into lending programmes to support corporations, small- and medium-sized business and state and local governments.

But Powell has repeatedly said the economy likely will need more government spending to support workers and businesses to allow the economy to recover, beyond the nearly $3 trillion already approved by Congress.

The crisis “has come on so quickly, and with such force that you really can’t put into words the pain people are feeling and the uncertainty they’re realizing,” he told CBS.

Tech giant Amazon hit from all sides as crisis highlights growing powerAFP - SAN FRANCISCO

As Amazon becomes an increas-ingly important lifeline in the pandemic crisis, it is being hit with a wave of criticism from activists, politicians and others who question the tech giant’s growing influence.

Amazon has become the most scrutinized company during the health emergency.

It has boosted its global workforce to nearly one million and dealt with protests over warehouse safety and reported deaths of several employees.

But Amazon has also pledged to spend at least $4bn in the current quarter, its entire expected operating profit, on coronavirus mitigation efforts, including relief contributions and funding research.

Amazon’s AWS cloud com-puting unit, which powers big portions of the Internet, is also a key element during the crisis with more people and companies working online.

Amazon’s market value has hovered near record levels around $1.2 trillion dollars as it reported rising revenues and

lower profits in the past quarter. “Its sheer size justifies the

scrutiny,” said Dania Rajendra (pictured) of the activist group Athena, a coalition which is focused specifically on Amazon’s corporate activity and treatment of workers.

Athena activists fret that Amazon, which also controls one of the major streaming television services, infiltrates so many aspects of people’s lives.

Rankling many activists, the rise in Amazon’s shares has boosted the wealth of founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos to over $140bn even as the global economy has been battered by

the virus outbreak. Amazon has faced employee

walkouts at several facilities over safety and hazard pay and has been accused of firing people for speaking out against the company.

“It’s a minority going on strike but the sentiment repre-sents thousand if not hundreds of thousands,” said Steve Smith of the California Labor Federation.

While Amazon has boosted base pay to $15 an hour, above the minimum wage required, and added bonuses during the pan-demic, activists say it’s insuffi-cient, especially in high-cost states like California.

“This company can afford to make these jobs middle class jobs, good jobs,” Smith said.

The tensions have spilled over into the US capital Wash-ington and elsewhere. US law-makers leading antitrust inves-tigations asked Bezos to respond to reports that the company improperly used data from third-party sellers to launch its own products, which the company has denied.

New York state Attorney

General Letitia James called Amazon “disgraceful” for firing a warehouse employee who led a worker protest over safety. Amazon said the employee refused to quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.

In a statement to AFP, Amazon defended its actions on workplace safety, social dis-tancing and noted that it is imple-menting its own employee testing programme. The company also disputed claims it was stifling employee speech.

Spokeswoman Lisa Levand-owski said the employees in question were dismissed “not for talking publicly about working conditions or safety, but rather, for repeatedly violating internal policies.”

Levandowski added that Amazon already provides what many unions have been seeking, including a high base wage, health benefits and career opportunities.

“She said the company seeks “a great employment experience” along with offering “a world-class customer experience (while) respecting rights to choose a union.”

Argentina develops fast test kitArgentina President Alberto Fernandez (right), Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia (second left), Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta (third left), Buenos Aires Vice-Mayor Diego Santilli (left), Science and Technology Minister Roberto Salvarezza (centre) and Presidency General Secretary Julio Vitobello during the presentation of the new fast test “NEOKIT-COVID-19” developed by Argentine scientists allowing to detect the SARS-CoV-2 in less than two hours, with similar results of PCR test (7 hours), during the lockdown against the spread of the new coronavirus in Olivos, Buenos Aires.

Thailand opens malls after nearly 2 months amid coronavirus outbreakREUTERS - BANGKOK

Thailand yesterday opened malls and department stores for the first time since March in its second phase of relaxing measures as the number of new coronavirus cases slowed.

The country’s top mall operator, Central Pattana Pcl said it was reopening 33 of its shopping centres nationwide.

Central Pattana said it would control density by only allowing one person per 5 square meters (54 square feet) and use robots to measure body temperatures and by using touchless elevators.

Scores of shoppers were seen queuing before entering the Iconsiam mall in central Bangkok. Customers are asked to scan a QR code and register on a government website before entering.

“I want to have Japanese food today because I haven’t had it for three or four months.

The QR code registration is inconvenient for an elderly person like me,” said Sa-nguan Khumrungroj, 65, at Iconsiam.

A machine sprayed disin-fectant at shoppers’ feet as they entered Iconsiam and another dispensed hand sanitizer.

Yesterday, Thailand reported three additional coro-navirus cases, in line with a trend of fewer new daily cases in May.

It has reported a total 3,028 cases, with 2,856 patients having recovered and 56 deaths.

“The cases have declined a lot which I think is suitable for

the mall to open because the economy has gone bad,” shopper Pornchai Laochun-suwan said at Iconsiam.

Thailand’s government has ordered that malls will have to close by 8pm and that areas where large numbers of people could gather such as movie the-atres and bowling alleys must remain closed.

The government relaxed other measures yesterday including shortening a nighttime curfew by one hour, to 11pm to 4am from 10pm to 4am At the end of April, the country lifted curbs on small

businesses like restaurants and barber shops.

On Saturday, the country’s aviation regulator extended a

ban on international passenger flights until the end of June.

People standing in line to enter the Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok, yesterday.

Temporary layoff schemes no cure-all in slow COVID-19 recovery processREUTERS - BRUSSELS

Temporary unemployment schemes operating across Europe could struggle to save the jobs of leisure and travel sector workers facing drawn-out or partial recoveries from the COVID-19 pandemic, even if they help industries that rebound quickly.

Short-term unemployment or furlough schemes have taken in a quarter of Britain’s work-force, nearly two-thirds of those employed by France’s private sector and many millions across Europe.

Championed by Germany, where it is known as kurzarbeit, the schemes typically provide at least 80 percent of pay for workers for whom there is no work now, but a swift return is expected after a limited period.

The schemes have spread far wider and faster than during the last major shock, the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

Raymond Torres, chief econ-omist of the Spanish think-tank Funcas, says furlough schemes are one of the responses that have

really worked in the initial man-agement of the crisis.

“I wish the same had been done in 2009 where they were hardly used and caused unem-ployment to rise,” he said, although he expressed concern that the scheme in Spain would only run to the end of June, with many further months of eco-nomic crisis expected.

The head of Swiss pharma-ceutical company Novartis gave an unsettling warning on Friday that any vaccine to fight the new coronavirus will not be ready for use for at least two years.

The layoff schemes come at a cost, though, so are temporary in nature. In Italy, for example, companies can use them for up to 18 weeks. Many elsewhere last until the end of June.

British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak says the UK bill for cov-ering 7.5 million workers is $9.75bn a month, about two-thirds of what the country spends on its health service. Sunak has warned this is not sustainable, although he extended it for a second time on Tuesday.

Even with the scheme, Brit-ain’s unemployment rate is set to more than double to 10 percent in the second quarter.

In France, the cost is likely far to surpass the $28.1bn budgeted. Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud said the government planned to lower wage reim-bursements by the state from June.

A study in Belgium released this week gave a taste of eco-nomic life after temporary layoffs end. Belgium has some 900,000 people covered by such a scheme, currently until the end of June.

The survey of companies by the country’s new economic task-force showed that 180,000, or 6 percent of the workforce, risked losing their jobs within a rela-tively short time period.

Of those, a quarter worked in hotels, cafes and restaurants and almost half in the culture and recreation sector. A further 75,000 self-employed people believed they were likely to go under. Italy has banned dis-missal procedures until mid-August.

NYC Mayor warns of more job cutsBLOOMBERG

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (pictured) sounded the alarm again on the city’s budget and hinted at first-responder layoffs as a result of the corona-virus pandemic.

The city has been the epi-center of the health emergency in the US, with more than 190,000 coronavirus cases and at least 14,000 deaths, according to health officials.

With most businesses shut, tax revenues have plummeted accordingly. A month ago de Blasio warned that some $2bn in municipal services could be slashed over the next year, from garbage pickups to the frequency of Staten Island Ferry services

“When I told you about that $7.5bn, that’s revenue that’s gone that pays for cops, firefighters, teachers, sanitation workers,” de Blasio said on Fox News Chan-nel’s 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

“I’m probably going to see more and more revenue gone because our economy won’t come back without a stimulus,” he said.

De Blasio rejected a sug-gestion that he’s using the pan-demic to cover up for years of mismanagement.

“This city was moving forward,” he said.

Parts of New York’s state economy are gradually reo-pening after stay-at-home orders

taken to slow the spread of COVID-19. New York City’s lockdown was extended last week to June 13.

Malaysia reopening businesses

04 MONDAY 18 MAY 2020BUSINESS

UK economyto recoverslowly fromcoronavirusshutdown,says officialREUTERS - LONDON

Britain’s economy is unlikely to have a quick bounce back as it recovers from its coro-navirus shutdown which could have wiped more than 30 percent off output last month, the head of the coun-try’s budget forecasting office said yesterday.

Robert Chote (pictured), chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said April was probably the bottom of the crash as the government is now moving to gradually ease its lockdown restrictions.

“We know that the economy, probably at its worst last month, may have been a third or so smaller than it normally would have been, in terms of output of goods and services and people’s spending,” he told BBC television.

“But that should be the worst of it.”

Britain, like many other countries, has shut down much of its economy to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Last month, the OBR said Britain’s gross domestic product could plummet by 13 percent in 2020, its biggest collapse in more than 300 years.

Chote said a quick, V-shaped recovery included in that report was only meant to be an illustrative scenario to show the hit to the public finances.

“In practice I think you are likely not to see the economy bouncing back to where we would have expected it otherwise to be by the end of the year, on that assumption, but instead a

rather slower recovery,” Chote said.

As well as the pace of the lifting of the lockdown, the speed of the recovery would depend on how cautious con-sumers remained and how companies adjust to changes in the economy such as more demand for online retailing and less for restaurants.

Chote said Britain would not necessarily have to return to severe public spending cuts to cope with the debt surge that will come from its response to the coronavirus crisis.

Key factors include how much permanent damage the economy suffers, the level of interest rates on public debt - which are currently rock-bottom - and how much the country wants to spend on health and other services.

“But a post financial crisis-style, extended period of austerity is not a done deal,” Chote said, adding tax increases were another option.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will not lead Britain into a new period of austerity after previous Conservative-led govern-ments sought to fix the public finances by cutting spending in many areas of public services.

Last month, the OBR said Britain’s gross domestic product could plummet by 13 percent in 2020, its biggest collapse in more than 300 years.

South Africa seeks clout in

creation of a new airlineBLOOMBERG Pravin Gordhan (pictured), South Africa’s minister for public enterprises, is staking his own credibility and that of Pres-ident Cyril Ramaphosa’s gov-ernment on the creation of a new airline out of the ashes of the bankrupt national carrier.

Hit by the loss of the coun-try’s last investment-grade rating on its sovereign debt and the COVID-19 pandemic, Ram-aphosa has said hard choices will need to be made as the country restructures its economy. What the state decides to do with South African Airways could be a litmus test for that resolve.

SAA hasn’t made a profit since 2011 and was surviving on state bailouts and government-guaranteed debt even before the coronavirus forced the grounding of almost all its planes. Both Gordhan and the team of business-rescue experts currently running the airline have suggested a strategic investment partner could help restore the airline, but with car-riers worldwide expected to burn through $61 bn in the second quarter alone the list of potential buyers looks thin.

And while South Africa’s National Treasury has found money for SAA in the past, the state’s finances have been severely stretched by efforts to contain COVID-19. The economy is forecast to contract as much as 16 percent this year and lose as many as 7 million jobs, and Ramaphosa last month announced a 500-billion rand ($27bn) support package to contain the fallout.

“We’ve got our backs totally against the wall,” Cas Coovadia, chief executive officer of Business Unity South Africa, said in an interview. With regard to Gordhan, “we have the greatest respect for him, we just can’t see, given the facts of the matter, how SAA can be saved,” he said.

SAA’s board placed the airline in a local form of bank-ruptcy protection, known as business rescue, in December. The appointed administrators, led by Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson, were expected to propose a recovery plan to creditors by the end of Feb-ruary, but requested an extension due to delays to promised funding. A further postponement was granted after the coronavirus reached

South Africa in March, and a final plan still hasn’t been presented.

After a request for further government funding was refused last month, the admin-istrators said the best option was an orderly winding down with severance packages offered to all staff. While the proposal was blocked in court after an appeal by labor groups, it remains the business-rescue team’s preferred course of action, a spokeswoman said, declining to comment further.

SAA’s almost 5,000 workers are currently on unpaid leave. They are receiving some com-pensation from the Unem-ployment Insurance Fund.

Gordhan, 71, has criticized the administrators, accusing them of wasting money and lacking transparency. His plan is to create a viable airline that isn’t reliant on state funding, while saving as many jobs as it can, the minister told law-makers on Friday.

“These aren’t individual decisions,” he said. “It’s gov-ernment decisions the department is implementing.” A spokesman for the Department of Public Enter-prises declined to answer

further queries.Obstacles to Gordhan’s plan,

which has the backing of unions, include the lack of state funding. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has repeatedly made clear he’s reluctant to put more money into SAA and said he isn’t averse to the airline closing. Attracting an equity partner to invest in a peren-nially loss-making operation is also complicated by the govern-ment’s desire to retain control and a law that limits foreign ownership to 25 percent .

“There are not too many people at the moment that can invest, certainly not too many foreign airlines that can,” said Linden Birns, managing director of Plane Talking, a Cape Town-based aviation advisory service. “Who is going to put money in if they do not have a decent say on the board, or voting rights?”

Gordhan’s insistence on saving the airline comes at the expense of a reputation built on prudence and pragmatism.

Workers in a food court prepare for social distancing measures at a shopping mall as businesses reopened in Penang yesterday, with Malaysia relaxing its partial lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Oil, tourism, seafood -- all hit in Louisiana virus fightAP - NEW ORLEANS

Every Labor Day weekend, St. Mary Parish celebrates two industries at a tourist event with a seemingly improbable title: the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.

With a shrimp in a hard hat clinging to an oil derrick as its logo, the festival may the best example of how diverse eco-nomic interests mesh in south Louisiana - and how attempts to curb the spread of COVID-19 have visited a kind of triple eco-nomic whammy on the state.

A worldwide oil glut was pushing down prices even before the pandemic fight lowered energy demand, con-tributing to layoffs .

Festival-driven tourism has dried up, meaning more lost jobs. And one major tourist draw - cuisine built around fin fish, shrimp, oyster and crabs - also is suffering.

“May is normally our busiest month, and it’s terrible,” said Harlon Pearce, owner of a seafood processing business in suburban New Orleans, where restaurants are limited to take-out service and major spring and summer festivals have been can-celed. “You have Jazz Fest, you have French Quarter Fest, Mother’s Day. It’s a tough time. Us not having any of our major events this year for tourism is going to be a killer.”

The board that runs the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival in Morgan City, roughly 80 miles

(130km) west of New Orleans, hasn’t made a final decision on whether to hold a 2020 festival. Even if the show goes on, local seafood dealer Daniel Edgar said, “There’s not going to be a whole lot to celebrate.”

South of New Orleans, in the barrier island community of Grand Isle, marina and hotel owner Buggie Vegas said he recently reopened his hotel after being closed for weeks as access to the island was restricted and a curfew was imposed. He esti-mates about half of his 26 rooms were booked on a recent weekend, instead of the normal full house in good weather.

Visitors spent $15bn in Lou-isiana in 2018 according to the state Department of Culture, Rec-reation and Tourism, and the

hospitality and leisure economy accounted for more than 240,000 jobs as of February. In March, however, hospitality and leisure jobs dropped by 8,400, according to the Louisiana Work-force Commission, the state’s labour department.

Recreational fishing is picking up on the coast, but Vegas has noticed a drop in charter fishing that he attributes, at least in part, to oil-related layoffs.

“The oil companies laid off a bunch of people for the oil price. And that’s a lot of their entertainment,” Vegas said.

Shrimper Acy Cooper said coastal communities rely on the oil workers and the shrimpers. “If we don’t make any money, they don’t,” he said.

The state seafood promotion

board estimates the industry’s economic impact at $2.4bn. Now, shrimp boats remain docked at Morgan City on the Atchafalaya River in St. Mary Parish, seafood dealer Edgar said. His family-run business is still operating, finding markets for crawfish and crabs, but many wholesalers he deals with have shut down and business is unpredictable, he said.

Cooper, president of the Louisiana Shrimpers Associ-ation, estimates only about 5 percent of shrimp boats are going out.

“Just about everything’s shut down right now, with the price of oil,” said Mark Cognovech, a member of the governing council in Plaquemines Parish, at the state’s southeastern tip.

Americans have no clue what’s next on inflationBLOOMBERG

The Federal Reserve’s stated mandate is to “promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long term interest rates.” The first part is obviously a disaster right now, with more than 36 million Americans filing initial jobless claims in the past eight weeks, bringing US unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression. The last objective is easily met, with benchmark Treasury yields hovering close to all-time lows.

But what about stable prices?

For years, Fed officials fretted that consumers’ inflation outlook was almost too stable at historically low levels. Vice- Chair Richard Clarida, for one, follows University of Michigan data that surveys expected price changes during the next five to 10 years. That gauge fell to 2.2 percent in December, a record low. A year earlier, when it was at 2.6 percent , he called it “within - but I believe at the lower end of - the range con-sistent with price stability.” Since 2012, expectations have fluctuated in a tight window of 2.2 percent to 3 percent , including 2.6 percent in a report released Friday. The

central bank generally views 2 percent as its target rate.

The coronavirus pandemic has shaken American house-holds to their core in any number of ways. At best, it’s acclimating to working from home and adjusting day-to-day behaviour. At worst, the most economically vulnerable indi-viduals are suddenly unem-ployed and unsure when - or if - they’ll be rehired.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell previewed some of the devas-tation earlier this month from what was at the time an unre-leased report. “Among people who were working in February, almost 40 percent of those in

households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March,” he said in prepared remarks. “This reversal of eco-nomic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future.”

Though seemingly insignif-icant for now, the once-stable outlook for inflation appears to also have shifted drastically.

As America comes out from under the Great Lockdown, how central bank officials handle what could be early signs of unanchored inflation expec-tations, and how the public responds, could play a crucial

role in any recovery.In a blog post, New York Fed

researchers found “unprece-dented increases in individual uncertainty - and disagreement across respondents - about future inflation outcomes.” The share of people who expect deflation in 2021 increased from less than 10 percent at the end of February to more than 20 percent a month later. Mean-while, those who expect short-term inflation to be higher than 4 percent jumped from about 30 percent to almost 45 percent in the same period. In other words, although the median expectation might only show a small move, some households

are bracing for a drastic swing.At a high level, these are two

vastly different economic sce-narios. Deflation frightens policy makers because rational con-sumers would postpone pur-chases to get goods and services at a cheaper price. That would curtail economic activity and potentially exacerbate the situ-ation. Yet much higher inflation would erode the purchasing power of consumers, particu-larly those with lower incomes or who can’t afford to invest in assets that rise with price growth. Neither of these options is ideal, which is why the Fed is tasked with engineering a stable middle ground.

China, S Koreaconsult Japanon easingbusiness-travelcurbs: Report

REUTERS - TOKYO

China and South Korea have consulted Japan about easing border controls on business travellers to help revive business activities, the Yomiuri news-paper reported yesterday without citing sources.

The idea, already imple-mented between South Korea and China, would allow a fast-track entry of business people if they test negative for the new coronavirus before departure and after arrival, the newspaper said.

But Tokyo is cautious about relaxing border controls at this point due to fears of another spike in infections, as well as a lack of test kits for travellers, according to the report.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday lifted his state of emergency for 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, easing curbs on 54 percent of the population.

The greater Tokyo area, accounting for one-third of the nation’s economy, and other major cities remain under restrictions.

Japan has reported some 16,300 cases of the coronavirus, not counting infections on a cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama port early this year, and 748 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to public broadcaster NHK.

While Japan has avoided the kind of explosive outbreaks seen in the United States and elsewhere, its testing has also been among the lowest.

REUTERS — LONDON

Senior British Government Minister Michael Gove (pictured) said yesterday there was a post-Brexit trade deal to be done with the European Union providing the bloc agreed to compromise, days after both sides said talks were making little progress.

The United Kingdom left the EU on January 31 but the main terms of its membership remain in place for a transition period until the end of this year to allow it time to negotiate a free trade agreement.

Both Britain’s and the EU’s chief negotiators yesterday gave downbeat assessments of the latest round of talks, saying the other side had to give ground if any progress was to be made.

The stalemate has raised the prospect that there will be no deal struck, a scenario that would damage global trade as the world copes with the eco-nomic fallout from the corona-virus pandemic.

On Friday, investors’ con-cerns about the state of the trade negotiations pushed sterling to its lowest level in more than a month.

The main sticking point in

the talks has been so-called “level playing field” rules to ensure fair competition. The EU says they are indispensable to ensure Britain does not undercut its standards, but Britain rejects them as binding it to European laws.

Gove, the British Cabinet Office Minister, said this and issues such as future fishing rights remained sticking points.

“We’re making it clear to the EU we can’t do a deal on those terms,” he told Sky

News. “But I am confident that there is a deal to be done. It just requires a degree of flex-ibility on the EU side which I’m sure that they will appre-ciate they need to show.” However, in a demonstration of the hurdles ahead, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney - who played a key role in Britain’s EU exit talks due to the border Ireland shares with the British province of Northern Ireland - said Britain had to move on the level playing field issue to

break the deadlock.He told Irish national

broadcaster RTE yesterday that Britain was “essentially rewriting” what it had com-mitted to in the political decla-ration of the Brexit deal.

“Until the UK changes its approach in the context of giving the EU assurance that they are not going to effectively deregulate their economy while expecting free access in the EU single market, I think we’re going to continue to be in real difficulty in these talks,” he added.

Britain’s Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that the government was preparing to walk away altogether if no progress was made at the next round of talks due to begin in 15 days time and if the EU did not shift.

“Breakdown is entirely possible,” an unnamed senior government source told the paper.

The Sunday Times said a no-deal planning committee, chaired by Gove, was now going to meet regularly and that officials who had been seconded to help fight the COVID-19 outbreak were being moved back to plan for this eventuality.

We’re making it clear to the EU we can’t do a deal on those terms,” Gove told Sky News. “But I am confident that there is a deal to be done. It just requires a degree of flexibility on the EU side which I’m sure that they will appreciate they need to show.

05MONDAY 18 MAY 2020 BUSINESS

UK’s Gove says EU trade deal can be done despite talks stalemate

FCA talking with Italy in

bid for €6.3bn facilityAFP — ROME

Fiat Chrysler’s Italian unit is in talks with the Italian government for a €6.3bn ($6.8bn) credit facility to help sustain the auto manufacturer’s operations in Italy, it said.

A “Liquidity Decree” passed by the government in April allows for the state to guarantee loans to Italian companies hurt during the extended quarantine due to coronavirus.

“FCA Italy has initiated a process with the Italian Gov-ernment to obtain a guar-antee from SACE (Italy’s export credit agency) in support of a credit facility designed to help the auto-motive chain Italy, comprised of approximately 10,000 small and medium size busi-nesses,” the company said.

Discussions had already begun with Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo for a 3-year credit facility exclusively for the company’s activities in Italy, the company said.

The global automotive sector has been crushed by the coronavirus pandemic as demand has evaporated and factories have been shuttered.

FCA said the funds from the

Italian credit facility would be “for the sole purpose of pro-viding operational support for payments to Italian suppliers to support their liquidity” as well as “supporting the restart of production and investment at Italian plants”.

The 6.3 billion euro facility is equivalent to 25 percent of FCA’s industrial subsidiaries in Italy, as per the government’s decree.

The automotive sector makes up 6.2 percent of Italy’s GDP, while 7 percent of jobs in manufacturing are auto-related ones.

In Italy, FCA employes nearly 55,000 workers in its 16 factories and 26 research and development sites. The company work with 12,000 suppliers, comprising 120,000 jobs, it said.

Support for companies not based in Italy pose tricky political problems for the gov-ernment as millions of com-panies in the country com-plain of little or no support.

“A company applying for large sums of money from the Italian state brings its headquarters back to Italy,” said the vice president of the Democratic Party, Andrea Orlando, on Twitter on Saturday.

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE Index 8,699.45 -0.41 %

QE Total Return Index 16,724.40 -0.41 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index - Price 1,935.82 -0.70 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,453.45 -0.69 %

QE All Share Index 2,701.90 -0.50 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 3,786.19 -0.61 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,385.03 -0.65 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,573.25 +0.64 %

QE All Share Real Estate 1,347.16 -0.27 %

QE All Share Insurance 2,018.78 +0.51 %

QE All Share Telecoms 821.28 -1.35 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 7,012.39 -0.36 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

17-05-2020Index 8,699.45

Change -35.98

% -0.41 %

YTD% -16.56

Volume 121,602,975

Value (QAR) 203,400,788.19

Trades 5,831

Up 10 | Down 29 | Unchanged 0514-05-2020Index 8,735.43

Change -66.27

% -0.75%

YTD% -16.21

Volume 229,408,382

Value (QAR) 329,533,040.93

Trades 11,129

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD QR202.8618 grammeSILVER QR1.7958 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low All Ordinaries 4207.354 110.624 2.7 5069.5 3829.4

CAC 40 Index/D 3176.13 -0.06 0 4169.87 2979.87

DAX - Composit/D 531.14 8.71 1.67 667.98 485.74

DJ Indu Average 0 0 0 12876 9936.39

Egypt Cma Gn Idx 675.91 13.3 0.95 1567.23 143.08

Hang Seng Inde/D 19783.67 452.97 2.34 24468.64 18868.11

ISEG Overall/D 2510.71 44.36 1.8 3037.89 2333.35

Karachi 100 In/D 11311.29 276.37 2.5 12768.4 11032.2

Nikkei 225 Index 9038.74 94.26 1.05 10891.6 8227.63

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 1370.58 1039.7

Straits Times/D 2821.09 -62.91 -2.18 3280.77 2847

Currency Buying (QAR) Selling (QAR)US$ 3.6305 3.6500

Pound Sterlig 4.4682 4.5313

Swiss Frnac 3.7067 3.7591

Japanese yen 0.03355 0.0342

Australian Dollar 2.2895 2.3346

Canadian Dollar 2.5502 2.6003

Indian Rupee 0.0474 0.0483

Pakistan Rupee 0.0225 0.0231

Philipine Peso 0.0712 0.0726

Bangala Takka 0.0425 0.0433

Sri lanka Rupee 0.0187 0.0191

Nepalese Rupee 0.0297 0.0302

South African Rand 0.1887 0.1925

Euro 3.8966 3.9508