Irfan Aleem Qureshi

Irfan Aleem is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, where he is facilitating the dialogue on economic issues facing Qatar and other regional economies in the wake of COVID-19, associated lockdowns, and the sharp fall in oil and gas prices.

Aleem is an Oxford trained macroeconomist with more than 20 years’ experience in senior policy making and operational positions with international public and private institutions in London, Washington D.C., Middle East, East Asia, and Africa.

Following his PhD in Economics at Oxford University under Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Aleem worked in the Group Planning Department of Shell International Petroleum in London helping the Managing Directors manage uncertainty in oil markets and the global economy. Working in this area, Aleem was successful in deepening the use of the concept of scenario planning and ended his Shell assignment as Acting Chief Economist for the Group.

From Shell, Aleem moved to the World Bank in Washington DC to focus on economic issues and on the role knowledge, finance, and institutions play in raising productivity and incomes. Aleem worked for 20 years at the World Bank, as an economist in various sectors (energy, finance, industry, trade, and private sector), regions and departments (Operations, Research, Treasury and on the Board of the Bank as Senior Advisor at the level of Vice President).

During his stay at the World Bank, Aleem wrote papers on financial markets including rural finance, micro and SME finance, and links between financial markets and the macroeconomy, which have been cited in more than 250 journal articles and formed case studies at MIT. Aleem has also prepared unpublished papers on other subjects including structural reforms to enhance productivity and growth; lending policies and quality of projects; trade policy reforms; knowledge, and risk/impact assessment.

Aleem was seconded to the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah where he spent seven years in operations as Principal Economist (Director level) in the wake of the Arab Spring focused on preparing country studies and advising governments in petroleum exporting Middle East countries, and those in the Maghreb, on strategies and reform policies and enhancing investment in private sector using both debt and equity instruments with blended finance to support SMEs

In 2015 Aleem moved to Qatar and spent the last five years as Chief Economist, Economic Policy and Research at the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and from 2018, at the Ministry of Finance focused primarily on plans to diversify the economy, enhancing economic security in the wake of the blockade, raising competitiveness and capacity building.

EDUCATION

• PhD, Oxford University
• MPhi, Oxford University
• MSc, Imperial College, London University
• BSc, Karachi University