Qatar says 2018 budget will focus on resisting economic boycott

Qatar says 2018 budget will focus on resisting economic boycott:

"Qatar’s 2018 state budget will focus on developing local industries and the private sector as the country works to make itself self-sufficient in the face of a boycott by other Arab states, Finance Minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi said on Tuesday.

In a speech to an international business conference, delivered exactly six months after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, Emadi said the economy had escaped serious damage.

But he added that Qatar was determined never again to leave itself as vulnerable as it was in the initial weeks of the boycott, when the closing of its border with Saudi Arabia slashed imports of fresh food and other Gulf states pulled billions of dollars of deposits from its banks. "



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