Qatar has been able to weather the political and economic blockade put in place by neighbouring states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in June 2017 with surprising ease by building up new trade routes and increasing its independence. However, the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the global drop in oil prices, is likely to have a far more significant impact on the Qatari economy in the short term. "Qatar learnt lessons from the 2008 financial crisis. It gave us the impetus to grow our self-reliance and the blockade has made Qatar even more self-reliant and has supported diversification," says Dr R Seetharaman, chief executive of Doha Bank, one of Qatar's largest lenders. However, he describes the current pandemic as "an economic crisis [and] human catastrophe, and the overall paralysis [is something] we've never seen in our lifetime". Even so, Qatar's economic fundamentals are strong, he says, with the country's external asset position and reserves valued at double its gross domestic product (GDP).
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