Qatar will fare better than the UAE when the global economic crisis sweeps through the region in 2009, Standard Chartered said in a report released on Sunday. Economic growth in Qatar was expected to be "more sluggish" next year than in 2008, but was likely to be helped by "comfortable surpluses" from heavy investments in gas production, the bank said. Standard Chartered said Qatar was expected to have the strongest GCC current account surplus, above 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. "Hydrocarbon projects coming on-stream will result in sustained growth," Standard Chartered senior economist Philippe Dauba-Pantanacce said in the report. Dauba-Pantanacce said while a real estate price correction in Qatar was likely, fundamental growth drivers should put a floor under this. The bank also predicted inflation in Qatar would ease to 10 percent in 2009, although it warned fast growth could fuel inflation, which hit a high of close to 15 percent this year. http://www.arabianbusiness.com/541641-qatar-to-suffer-less-than-uae-amid-2009-downturn

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