Despite the world recession, Qatar has unveiled yet another record budget for 2013-14, demonstrating once more that it is confident it has the financial resources needed to achieve its ambitious development plans in preparation for the 2022 World Cup. But economic growth is not expected to maintain the double-digit figures of the recent past, and the government is projecting a smaller surplus in 2013-14 than the previous year. The budget also maintains a high level of social spending on wages, education and health.
Qatar’s budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year which starts on 1 April, projects total revenue of QR218.051bn ($59.904bn), up 5.7% from QR206.273bn ($56.668bn) in 2012-13, and total expenditure of QR210.602bn ($57.858bn), up 17.9% from QR178.590bn ($49.063bn) in 2012-13. The budget released on 1 April under Decree 9 of 2013 issued by the Amir, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, will have a much lower surplus of QR7.449bn ($2.046bn), down 73.1% from the projected surplus of QR27.683bn ($7.605bn) for 2012-13 (MEES, 4 June 2012). (CONTINUED - 1129 WORDS)
