Economy and Trade

Abstract

This chapter analyses the impact of the sudden closure of Qatar’s only land boundary and most of the surrounding sea- and airspace on 5 June 2017 on a Qatari economy that was heavily reliant upon international supply chains for most necessary items in daily and commercial life. It examines the range of remedial measures taken to reduce economic risk and financial volatility, as well as the longer-term policies that were implemented as the blockade stretched into months and then years, and which created new economic and trading realities. These include the economic and financial responses that aimed to reassure foreign investors, the restructuring of trade routes, and the expansion of domestic food and manufacturing sectors.