QCB will Keep Creating Balance Between Monetary Policies, Maintaining Growth Rates, Governor Confirms

Doha: HE Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al-Thani affirmed that QCB will keep creating the balance between the monetary policies, maintaining economy growth rates, and protecting from foreign capital flows. Addressing the session was titled Artificial Intelligence and Reinventing Banking and was held at the Qatar Economic Forum, His Excellency said that although the inflation rates in Qatar have reached rational levels, the QCB will continue to create that balance, emphasizing that pegging the Qatari riyal (QR) to the US dollar (USD) has been successful, and as a consequence, the profit rates are inherently associated with the orientations of the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors. His Excellency highlighted that the mission of QCB is currently focused on ensuring that QR is pegged to USD, since interest rates will not be reduced unless inflation is controlled. He indicated that inflation indicators in Europe are better than the United States and are moving towar ds the target levels estimated at 2 percent. The improvement of inflation rates in 2023 was owing to the improvement in supply chains, along with the decreasing prices of food and fuel, with the inflation rates varying from one country to the other since early 2024, His Excellency added. HE Governor of QCB announced that the bank set a general framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and has been circulated to the banks operating in the State of Qatar to further receive their feedback on the aforementioned topic. And he emphasized that the utilization of AI would reduce the inflation rates in the long and medium terms, because AI supports efficiency, productivity and profit optimization and will ultimately result in redundancy. leveraging AI technologies could increase inflation rates in the short term by a few percent, because many governments and firms are currently in need of investment in AI equipment and technologies, prompting a surge in prices, His Excellency highlighted, pointing out that AI is l ike any innovative technology that generates risks, foremost of which are protecting private information and cyber-attacks. The big concern right now is instability in the region which poses a major threat to the economic growth and sustainability for all sectors, he outlined. For his part, Governor of the Central Bank of Turkiye (CBRT) Fatih Karahan said CBRT is committed to maintaining a controlled position to reduce inflation and is ready to act, adding that he realizes the crescendo risks that could generate potential inflation. The CBRT predicts that, by the end of 2024, inflation could reach 38%, a threshold that should be maintained, he said, pointing out that the Turkish economy strives to maintain the price stability at the social level. Source: Qatar News Agency