Qatar oil production increased to 615,000 bpd in April from 610,000 bpd the previous month, QNB’s new data showed.

Brent crude oil prices fell by 2.1% month-on-month in April, reaching $51.7 for a barrel; however, Brent crude continues to recover on a year-on-year basis, increasing by 7.5%, it said.

“We forecast Brent crude prices to average $55/b in 2017,” QNB said in its 'Qatar Monthly Monitor' yesterday.

According to QNB Economics, Qatar’s international reserves stood at $34.3bn in March compared to $34.2bn in February.

The current level of reserves is equivalent to 5.7 months of import cover, which is well above the International Monetary Fund-recommended minimum of three months for a fixed-exchange rate regime.

The country’s exports grew 18.4% year-on-year to $5.4bn, helped by the recovery in oil and gas prices, while imports fell 9.6% year-on-year.

Japan was the largest export market, with a share of 18.7% of total exports, followed by South Korea and India; the US, Germany and the UAE were the top three countries of origin for imports.

The data showed bank deposits in Qatar grew 13.8% year-on-year in March compared to 19.8% in February.

The share of non-resident deposits to total deposits dipped to 25.2% in March from 25.8% the previous month.

Non-resident deposits grew 65.3% year-on-year, their slowest rate in four months.

Private sector deposits grew steadily at 11.2%, y-o-y in March compared to 10.6% in February, while public sector deposits contracted by 10.3% compared to -4.1%.

Qatar’s bank assets grew 12.3% year-on-year in March to QR1.28tn, compared to growth of 13.3% in February, QNB said.

Domestic assets grew 10.6% y-o-y in March from 12% in the previous month driven largely by growth in domestic credit.

Loan growth accelerated to 10.1% y-o-y in March from 12.7% in February, QNB said.

Loans to the public sector (close to 40% of total domestic credit) drove the headline, with growth of 19.3% year-on-year in March.

Private sector loans grew by 6.5% year-on-year while foreign credit grew by 7%, QNB said.

The country’s fiscal deficit widened in 2016 to -9% of GDP from -1.9% in 2015; a fiscal deficit was expected in 2016 given low oil prices (which averaged $43.6 compared to $52.4 in 2015) and continued capital expenditures.

Revenue fell by 26.5% year-on-year while expenditure declined by 8.4%, year-on-year.

The 2017 budget announced by the government projects a reduction in the fiscal deficit to QR28.4bn in 2017 from a deficit of QR46.5bn in 2016, QNB said.

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