Global credit rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) expects Qatar to repay around $4bn in maturing state debt this year and $2bn in 2022.
"We understand that to maintain a sufficient pool of repo-eligible assets for the banks, the government will slow the pace of debt reduction," S&P said in its rating affirmation on Qatar.
The government's debt repayments are being funded mainly through the Ministry of Finance's available cash balances, including the proceeds of Eurobond issuances over the past four years.
Despite limited budgetary financing needs, Qatar raised about $34bn from external borrowing in 2018-20.
"We expect government debt to remain at about 60% of GDP (gross domestic product) by year-end 2024, considering our debt repayment expectations and our projection of modest fiscal deficits at the central government level," the rating agency said.
The rating agency forecast that the government's net asset position will remain a rating strength, averaging 120% of GDP over 2021-24.
The government intends to reduce its overall debt-to-GDP ratio and last year made repayments totaling $17bn (QR62bn), including early redemptions of domestic bonds, alongside paying down maturing external debt.
"This reduced outstanding central government debt by about 4% in absolute terms. However, due to a contraction in nominal GDP, the debt stock increased to about 78% of 2020 GDP from 62% in 2019," S&P said.
The Qatar Central Bank reduced the interest rates on deposits and repurchase agreements twice in March 2020, by 100 basis points each time, in line with the US Federal Reserve.
"We expect Qatar to continue following the US monetary policy cycle, given its currency's peg to the US dollar. Despite limited monetary policy flexibility due to the peg regime, the Qatari authorities have reiterated their commitment to the system," it said, adding the peg has a "sizeable" pool of government external assets available to support it if needed.
"We understand that to maintain a sufficient pool of repo-eligible assets for the banks, the government will slow the pace of debt reduction," S&P said in its rating affirmation on Qatar.
The government's debt repayments are being funded mainly through the Ministry of Finance's available cash balances, including the proceeds of Eurobond issuances over the past four years.
Despite limited budgetary financing needs, Qatar raised about $34bn from external borrowing in 2018-20.
"We expect government debt to remain at about 60% of GDP (gross domestic product) by year-end 2024, considering our debt repayment expectations and our projection of modest fiscal deficits at the central government level," the rating agency said.
The rating agency forecast that the government's net asset position will remain a rating strength, averaging 120% of GDP over 2021-24.
The government intends to reduce its overall debt-to-GDP ratio and last year made repayments totaling $17bn (QR62bn), including early redemptions of domestic bonds, alongside paying down maturing external debt.
"This reduced outstanding central government debt by about 4% in absolute terms. However, due to a contraction in nominal GDP, the debt stock increased to about 78% of 2020 GDP from 62% in 2019," S&P said.
The Qatar Central Bank reduced the interest rates on deposits and repurchase agreements twice in March 2020, by 100 basis points each time, in line with the US Federal Reserve.
"We expect Qatar to continue following the US monetary policy cycle, given its currency's peg to the US dollar. Despite limited monetary policy flexibility due to the peg regime, the Qatari authorities have reiterated their commitment to the system," it said, adding the peg has a "sizeable" pool of government external assets available to support it if needed.