The Qatar Development Bank (QDB) is implementing a series of emergency programmes that will help businesses in the food and health sectors obtain loans more easily and cope with inventory stress and rising costs amid the Middle East conflict.

The measures are expected to benefit wholesale and retail businesses that are looking to purchase priority products but lack immediate cash, as well as factories that need to stockpile essential materials to avoid future production delays in case global shipping disruptions escalate.

Under its Supply Chain Financing programme, the QDB will provide partial guarantees for businesses to obtain loans more easily from commercial banks.

The bank said on Wednesday that it has activated the "financing and advisory programmes" in cooperation with the Ministry of Municipality of Commerce and Industry, and the Ministry of Public Health, and in coordination with the Committee for the Follow-up of the Implementation of Food Security Policies.

"These programmes are designed to support and empower companies and factories operating in the food and health sectors, as well as their ancillary industries, in response to private sector feedback received through the bank’s operations room in light of current regional developments," the state-owned Qatar News Agency said.

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As for factories, QDB will provide financing in priority sectors to enable them to boost their raw material inventory and prepare for future supply chain disruptions.

To combat inflation in the logistics sector, QDB’s Logistics Support Programme provides financial compensation to factories to help cover the sudden spike in shipping and transportation costs for imports.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) seban.scaria@lseg.com