Qatar's non-energy sector grows for seventh straight week, FDI inflows to be 'strong' for rest of 2025: QFC

Qatar's non-energy sector rose for the seventh consecutive month, indicating the country's resilience amidst tariff uncertainties and elevated volatility in the global economy, particularly in the first half (H1) of 2025, according to the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows will remain strong and is expected to pick up towards the tail-end of 2025, QFC said in its latest update.

"Qatar’s non-oil private sector PMI (purchasing managers’ index) averaged 51.1 for H1-2025 despite tariff uncertainty and geo-political risks. Qatar’s non-energy sector maintained its growth into second half of 2025," QFC said.

Qatar’s economy continues to do well with the Standard & Poor Global PMI showing that the non-oil sector remains in expansion territory, while FDI inflows continue to increase and banking assets grow by 9% on an annualised basis. The real estate sector remains robust after a strong H1-2025.

Inward FDI into Qatar has been comparatively strong in 2025, with the country having attracted $2.4bn (more than 86% of 2024 total FDI inflows) in FDI capex so far this year, the report said, adding FDI inflows into Qatar for 2025 have also contributed to the creation of 8,262 jobs so far.

"With four months left until the end of 2025, Qatar is well placed to attract FDI inflows in line with those witnessed in 2024 of $2.8bn," QFC said.

Data from 2020-24 indicated that on average the last four months of the year see FDI inflows of $342.8mn on average, it said.

Highlighting that the UAE, France and the US are the top three markets contributing to Qatar’s FDI inflows; the report said together these three contributed a total of $1.52bn or 62.9% of all FDI inflows into Qatar so far in 2025.

"The strong flow of inward FDI highlights the positive sentiment investors continue to have towards Qatar. We remain positive that FDI inflows will remain strong for the remainder of the year, as historically FDI inflows tend to pick up towards the tail-end of the year," the report said.

Real estate transactions amounted to QR6bn in the second quarter of 2025, an 88.9% increase on an annualised basis. This growth builds on the momentum gained in the first quarter of 2025 where real estate activity totalled QR4.1bn, putting real estate deals for 2025 in excess of QR10.1bn, which is QR2.5bn more than in H1-2024.

As of August 31, 2025, real estate activity equated to QR804mn with residential property accounting for 17% (QR137.1mn) of Qatar’s total real estate activity.

The Qatar Stock Exchange was largely flat in August with the index rising from 11,187.76 on the first trading day 11,222.33 on the last trading day.