Moody’s and S&P Claim Limited Short-term Benefits to Qatar Following Border Re-opening

S&P Global Ratings (S&P) and Moody’s Investor Service (Moody’s) have both concluded that the re-opening of borders between Qatar and its neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counterparts, will have limited impact in terms of government revenue and fiscal performance.

Moody’s states that Qatar’s financial system could benefit from the return of lenders and depositors, with the normalisation of relations generating inflows of deposits and supporting cross-border lending across the GCC. According to Moody’s, this could potentially undo declines witnessed since the start of the blockade. Moody’s also expects muted benefits given the limited intra-trade linkages as well as the fact that the extended political blockade allowed Qatar...