Qatar – Economic pressures lead Qataris to sell fake products for World Cup
Due to financial pressures following the deterioration of the economic situation in the country, a number of residents in Qatar tended to obtain funds in devious ways, as the authorities ignored their economic conditions and their huge suffering that they have been demanding to change. This was revealed by the security forces to try to falsify the matter and turn it into an unreal victory for them.
A few hours ago, Qatari authorities announced that they had made arrests for the sale of fake products linked to the 2022 World Cup. The World Cup’s round of bidding attracted thousands of people over several days in the country.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement: Cybercrime police in the Gulf state arrested five people, adding: “for promoting the sale of clothes bearing the logo of Qatar 2022 World Cup without prior approval from FIFA”.
Last December, the authorities raided a perfume factory that was to be placed in bottles bearing the logo of the World Cup, without arresting anyone, as there is no official perfume. Therefore, the arrests that were announced yesterday, Tuesday, are the first announced regarding the forgery of the World Cup matches in Qatar, according to Monitor.
Based on information about a social media account selling t-shirts and caps with the World Cup logo, police confiscated the items. The suspects, whose names were not released, “confessed to the charges against them when they presented the evidence”, the statement said.
FIFA sent a friendly reminder in text messages to country numbers to deter the illegal use of the tournament logo and the World Cup, while approved goods were put on sale in stores, but the cheap copycat was available on the street markets and online.
Meanwhile, thousands of migrant workers, many of whom were hired to build stadiums and related infrastructure, have once again come out on the last day of a five-day tour that saw the World Cup in the host country, but many were turned away before they were able to take a selfie with six kilograms of gold stored in a reinforced glass box, the Monitor reported.
Elizabeth Ochieng, a Kenyan office clerk, said: She stood in line for three hours in a Doha neighborhood on Monday and couldn’t approach the glass, adding: “Tonight I was a tenth (person) back from the cup when I closed.. It’s very disappointing”.
This coincides with official data showing a clear economic crisis in Qatar, which grew this year. The industrial production index in Doha recorded a 20.2% drop compared with January 2022; It registered 88.3 points and collapsed by 11.1 percent year on year compared to February 2021.
Qatar Central Bank assets declined in March by 2.5% on a monthly basis to around 271 billion riyals; Last month, Qatar Central Bank data showed that the value of investment in foreign treasury bonds fell by 1.4% to 121 billion riyals. Local bank assets also dropped by 8% to 74 billion riyals.
In March, Qatar’s monetary base fell 6.3% on a monthly basis to 102.6 billion riyals, according to the Central Bank of Qatar. Last month, the reserve currency at the Central Bank of Qatar was clearly affected by the decline of the mandatory reserve to 43.6 billion riyals, in addition to a drop in other assets – the money market mechanism between the Central Bank and local banks – by 30% to 19.3 billion riyals.
In March 2022, Qatar’s inflation index rose 4.42% year on year; the consumer price index rose, according to data from Qatar’s Planning and Statistics Authority.
