Qatar’s Shopping Spree - August 21, 2010
In December the Asian Games were held in this tiny country. The future of the world is discussed in conferences in its five star hotels, and now this country – whose population of 800,000 would not even match a medium-sized city in the UK – is aiming to buy Sainsbury’s, UK’s third largest supermarket with a market capitalization of over 10,000,000,000.
For Qatar may be tiny – from point to point it’s about 100 miles long, which compares to a width of thirty miles for the UK capital city, London – but it is also incredibly rich. In addition to oil reserves, the country shares possession of the largest gas field in the world with Iran.
Its per capita income of over $60,000 per annum makes it one of the richest countries – and even that is a misnomer. The majority of Qatar’s population consists of migrant workers, and while some highly skilled expatriates get extremely well paid jobs, the majority subsist on wages of as little as one hundred pounds a month. Strip out these expats, and the two hundred thousand or so Qataris remaining would have a much bigger slice of the pie. (It also means that the government is spending $5000 per Qatari on this one British company).
The results of this huge inflow of money can be seen throughout the country. In the Al Dafna area more towers every day lurch for the sky – those half built outnumber and out reach those already completed. In such a tiny country one can’t help wondering who will fill them – but the huge money flowing into the country needs to be spent somehow.
And the country just can’t spend it. Despite literally billions spent on infrastructure, it still has massive budget surpluses.
Paradoxically, all this money has even resulted in debt. Interest rates have been held down to 5.5% percent by the central bank. This is despite spiraling inflation – due to the money flowing into the country, and the Central Bank’s insistence on pegging the riyal to the dollar – and of course that low interest rate.
With inflation touching fifteen percent last year, there’s certainly no incentive to save, and with money piling up and banks have been pushing loans hard. Qataris have eagerly accepted the loans – it is estimated that this year ninety percent of holidaying Qataris took out loans to pay for their vacations, and many hammer their credit cards while abroad. There’s little doubt that at least some of the land cruisers you see outside almost every Qatar household are bought on credit.
Given the problems the inflow of money is causing, the Qatar royal family are being very sensible in sending as much of the money as they can straight back abroad. Given the quantity of money they have to spend, large targets like Sainbury’s make sense – and should also provide revenue in the distant future when oil and gas disappears.
All that remains to be seen now is whether Qatar can shovel enough money out to avoid major problems in their country. It’ll take more than one Sainsbury’s to do that!
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