Qatar’s efforts to bolster its financial services sector with better regulation, market infrastructure and legal systems have paid off by bolstering the Gulf state’s competitiveness, according to the World Economic Forum.

Trustworthiness and confidence in Qatar's financial market has increased markedly over the last year, with the country rising from 80th to 44th on the WEF's ranking of the world's most trustworthy financial markets, according to the organisation's Global Competitiveness Report published on Wednesday.