FT: When doing business, Qatar borrows heavily because it can

Most of Qatar’s high-profile acquisitions in recent years have been funded by debt, including Qatar Holding’s purchase of Harrods and the stake it took in Porsche-VW, the Financial Times reports.

Global banks are now accustomed to competing to finance the deals it recommends to the country’s movers and shakers, the newspaper continues:

While it may seem counterintuitive that one of the world’s richest nations borrows money to help fund its global deals, it is precisely because of its enormous wealth that the state can borrow for next to nothing.

Standard & Poor’s, which gives Qatar a “very high” AA rating, puts the government’s net debt at about 50 percent of gross domestic product.

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