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By Satish Kanady
Qatar’s onshore oil price in February marginally increased above its price in January to reach $ 55.11 a barrel. That means the oil price remained $10.11 above the price of $45 a barrel approved in the state budget, the Group Securities noted in its government data reveiw for the month of February.
The data reading shows the value of margin traded in February has decreased to QR5.71bn. In contrast, the market value of all stock shares by the end of February rose by QR9.5bn to QR577.7bn, while P/E Ratio is at 15.63 by the end of the month and 15 as average for the month.
The US dollar together with Qatari Riyal exchange rate against the euro at the end of February increased by the rate of 1.9 percent to settle at the level of $1.06 for each euro and dropped against the yen by the rate of 0.9 percent to the level of 114 yen per dollar.
Banks consolidated balance sheet for the month of January data showed a drop in total banks assets (and liabilities) of about QR9.9bn to stand at QR1261.9bn, government and the public sector total deposit dropped about QR16.7bn to QR169.2bn and the total public debt dropped about QR9bn to reach QR418.8bn, including government bonds and notes.
The country’s inflation rate data figures of January showed that inflation rate had decreased to 1.2 percent compared to 1.8 percent in December. The changes in the sub-groups were as follows: Increase by the rate of 2.8 percent in recreation and culture group, 4.7 percent in transport group, 1.7 percent in goods and services group, 0.6 percent housing and fuel group, 3 percent education group, 1.3 percent furniture group. In Contrast, clothing and footwear group decreased 1.3 percent; also there was decrease by the rate of 1.9 percent in food and beverages group, 2.7 percent in restaurants and 0.2percent in health group.
The country’s total population count register at the end of February showed an increase of about one thousand people, by the rate of 3.78 percent to reach 2.673 million people compared to 2.576 million people at the end of January, but it was still higher by 5 percent from what it was a year ago at the end of January 2016, when it amounted to 2.546 million people.
Globally, crude oil prices are expected to average $57/b in 2017 and gradually rise to $85/b in 2020 as supplies decrease due to the investment cutbacks of the past few years, Opec's official journal noted citing data provided by Wood Mackenzie. The report observed that following the sharp decline in oil prices, international oil companies had found ways to reduce the costs of field developments by rationalizing engineering plans and lowering contractor and rig rates.
© The Peninsula 2017
