Five Powder Kegs of the Frontier Economy

This peninsular country jutting off the coast of Saudi Arabia is expected to grow more than any country in the world this year. The main reason: natural gas. Qatar has 15% of total world supply and exports a liquefied version of it all across the globe. Qatar also produces gas at a lower cost than world averages and thus is better positioned to weather downside price fluctuations. Partly as a defense against the volatility of gas prices, Qatar's government has been steadily reinvesting hydrocarbon revenues into non-energy sectors of the economy. Their policies are paying off. Non-hydrocarbon sectors grew 9% in 2009 and the National Bank of Kuwait predicts those sectors will grow 15% in 2010. One beneficiary of the government's push to diversify the economy is Qatar National Bank SAQ. Shares have returned 44% in the past year. It is now the largest bank by assets in both Qatar and the Persian Gulf, with $180 billion at the end of 2009. Part of the banks' recent success and likely future growth is its investment banking unit. QNB Capital has managed the countries' biggest corporate transactions of late, including Vodaphone's $1 billion IPO on the Doha exchange and a multibillion-dollar bond issuance by Qatar Telecom.By John Bedecarre, contributorNEXT: Colombia Email Print RSS     Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close) try { cnnShareLinks.init('Galleries','rss.cnn.com/rss/money_galleries.rss'); // EDIT THIS } catch(e) {} Last updated August 09 2010: 11:34 AM ET cnnad_createAd("862267","http://ads.cnn.com/html.ng/site=cnn_money&cnn_money_brand=fortune&cnn_money_position=628x215_bot&cnn_money_rollup=magazine&cnn_money_section=fortune&cnn_money_subsection=quigo_gallery¶ms.styles=fs","215","628"); More • Investing in the world's best balance sheets • Where in the world is a good economy? • Qatar Airways' U.S. challenge cnnad_createAd("360288","http://ads.cnn.com/html.ng/site=cnn_money&cnn_money_position=336x280_rgt&cnn_money_rollup=business_news&cnn_money_section=galleries¶ms.styles=fs","280","336"); More Galleries Snapshots of the Frontier Whether it's an enormous and young population or vast natural resources, these five countries are veritable powder kegs of economic growth. More The visionaries of Detroit The once-great city in crisis needs all the innovation and optimism it can muster. In this installment in the Visionaries series, Fortune profiles a dozen people in metro Detroit, from entrepreneurs to big-business leaders. Their ideas and energy offer hope for a more vibrant Detroit economy. More Home Depot's hurricane plan Hurricane season is here. That's something the giant retail chain knows all about. Here's how Home Depot uses its supply chain to prepare for the before, during, and after. More cnnad_createAd("134041","http://ads.cnn.com/html.ng/site=cnn_money&cnn_money_brand=fortune&cnn_money_position=336x280_quigo&cnn_money_rollup=magazine&cnn_money_section=fortune&cnn_money_subsection=quigo_gallery¶ms.styles=fs","280","336"); Special Offer: chooseMagOFIE(); Home | Contact Us | Advertise with Us | Corrections | Career Opportunities | Site Map RSS | Email Delivery | Portfolio | Podcasts | Mobile | Widgets | User Preferences | Special Sections chooseFortEKeyFooter(); | Magazine Customer Service | Download Fortune Lists | Reprints | Conferences | Business Leader Council #marketCopyright td{color:#e2e2e2 !important;font-size:10px;} var urlPre="http://markets.money.cnn.com/"; var cnnDomain="http://money.cnn.com/"; var cookieDomain="cnn.com"; var tzOffset= -240; //var tzOffset= -300; msQueueManager.init('requestFrame', ms_blankURL); Please create a screen name to access this feature.

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var cnnSource = "FORT"; © 2010 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Advertising Practices. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2010 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2010 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2010. All rights reserved. var R = new String(document.referrer); var serveAd=1; if(R.length > 0) { if (R.indexOf("yahoo.com") >= 0) serveAd=0; } if(serveAd) { // dynamic logic document.write(''); //ADSPACE: ros/popunders/bot.1x1 cnnad_createAd("229469","http://ads.cnn.com/html.ng/site=cnn_money&cnn_money_position=1x1_bot¶ms.styles=fs","1","1"); try { selectSurvey(); } catch(e){} } _qoptions = {qacct:"p-5dyPa639IrgIw"}; document.write( ''); _qoptions={qacct:"p-5dyPa639IrgIw",labels:"Fortune"}; document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js' %3E%3C/script%3E")); COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:6035728, c3:"", c4:"", c5:"", c6:"", c15:"" });

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