DOHA: Qatar’s state budget turned a hefty surplus of QR94.6bn ($26bn) in the second quarter (July to September) of the current fiscal year (2012-13).
Preliminary data released by the banking regulator, Qatar Central Bank (QCB), show the fiscal surplus was 53.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter. Wire agency Reuters calculated the quarterly surplus at QR94.6bn. Qatar’s statistics agency, meanwhile, put the GDP at current prices in the third quarter of 2012 (second quarter of financial year 2012-13 that began on April 1 last year)at 175.29bn.
The central bank’s preliminary data show that GDP growth in the quarter under review was 1.3 percent. A hefty budget surplus is good news for Qatar which has been spending hugely on infrastructure development and putting part of the surpluses in strategic long-term investments to reduce its dependence on income from its vast hydrocarbons resources.
What is, however, a bit disturbing is the inflation data which show prices went up 2.6 percent in the country in the third quarter of 2012 (the second quarter of fiscal 2012-13). According to Reuters, the budget surplus was more than double the QR42.2bn surplus recorded in the same quarter of the previous year, and compared with a QR18.5bn deficit in April-June, 2012. That put the cumulative surplus at QR76.1bn in April-September.
Because of the timing of revenue flows, Qatar’s budget usually records deficits in the first quarter of its fiscal year, which begins in April, and then bounces back into surplus for the rest of the year.
Qatar booked a robust QR54.3bn surplus in the 2011/12 fiscal year, the biggest since at least 2005/06, despite a surge in spending on public sector wages. Reuters said analysts polled by it last January forecast Qatar’s budget surplus would be 9.1 percent of GDP in the current fiscal year.
Expenditure rose nearly 14 percent from a year earlier to QR40.8bn in July-September. Revenue was QR135.3bn, up 74 percent. Oil- and gas-related revenue accounts for roughly 70 percent of Qatar’s budget income. Under its budget plan Qatar said it would boost spending to QR178.6bn in the current fiscal year, including wages, services and projects, but expected a comfortable surplus of QR27.8bn.
Qatar plans to spend an average of over 10 percent of GDP annually on infrastructure in the run-up to hosting the 2022 World Cup, Reuters said. Economy and Finance Minister H E Yousuf Hussein Kamal told reporters informally recently that the country would be allocating more funds for public spending in the next budget.
The Peninsula
