Qatar’s economy is in good shape, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani said here yesterday. “There is absolutely no problem with the economy. It is as robust as ever,” the Premier said replying to questions from reporters about the possible impact of the ongoing global recession. He was addressing a news briefing after signing agreements with his Vietnamese counterpart who is on a visit here. Asked about the Doha Securities Market (DSM) which has not been performing well recently, the Premier said there was nothing wrong with it and nothing to worry about since equity exchanges were facing downturn worldwide. When told that local banks had become strict with lending, particularly in disbursing personal loans, the Prime Minister said that was the internal matter of the banks, so the government had no right to intervene. As for the banks suffering losses on the DSM, he said the government was studying ways to help them and added that the state had already provided them support through the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)—a reference to its buying of banking shares. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=March2009&file=Local_News2009030964448.xml

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