Inflation-hit Qatar to hold steel, cement costs

Doha: Qatar plans to freeze the price of steel and cement for three years and extend a diesel subsidy as it seeks to tackle near-record inflation, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Gulf States, including Qatar, are hampered in their bid to contain inflation by currency pegs to the ailing dollar, which have driven up import costs and forced them to track US interest rate cuts.

Qatar has no plans to revalue its currency or drop its dollar peg in the short to medium term, Prime Minister Shaikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al Thani was quoted by Gulf Times as saying.

Instead, it will focus on reducing the burden of inflation on its population through price controls and subsidies, Shaikh Hamad told a meeting of Qatari businesspeople, according to the paper.

"Contractors can now work without having any fears about any price rise in construction materials, namely steel, cement, sand..." Shaikh Hamad said.

"Any future price rise of such materials in the global market will be borne by the state during the three-year freeze," he said, without giving details.