Qatar's private sector grew almost 6 percent in 2018 despite oil price volatility

DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar's private sector grew by almost 6 percent in 2018 despite volatile oil prices, its finance minister said on Saturday.

Last year the economy saw outflows, but 2018 was a good year with most of the growth coming from the private sector, Ali Sharif al-Emadi told the Doha Forum on Saturday.

Qatar's public sector institutions, including its sovereign wealth fund, had injected more $40 billion into Qatari banks during the the initial months of its rift with Saudi Arabia and its allies to help the banking sector mitigate the impact of fund outflows.

(Reporting by Eric Knecht; Writing by Saeed Azhar; editing by Louise Heavens)