Fitch Ratings says it cut its historic estimates of the assets of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) after revelations from Qatar’s central bank governor.
Abdulla Bin Saud Al-Thani told a news channel the QIA had $300 billion of assets that it could liquidate to support the diplomatically isolated country. The sum is apparently less than Fitch Ratings had supposed and is less than the sum of $335 billion estimated by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, a consultancy, earlier this year.
Fitch Ratings mentioned the changed estimate in a press release announcing it had downgraded Qatar’s long-term issuer default ratings by one notch to AA-.
The agency said there was little hope of a quick resolution to a dispute that has prompted a boycott of Qatar by an alliance of countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Land, sea and air borders remain mostly closed and “the risk of further escalation remains”, said the agency.
“At the same time, the full financial and economic impact of the embargo is uncertain and could prove to be larger than we currently expect,” it said. “The measures taken against Qatar have dealt a blow to its external balance sheet.”
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