Qatar’s export revenues are shrinking on the back of depressed crude, condensate and LNG prices. But it will weather the storm. The gas giant, despite its foreign policy largesse, has been more conservative than some of its Gulf peers in putting money aside in the years of plenty. While prices for most of its key LNG exports are oil-linked, costly Australian projects will be harder hit.
Qatar posted a surplus of some 31% of GDP in 2013. This will only shrink modestly in 2014: the country benefitted from high oil and LNG prices for much of the year: crude prices remained at $100/B and above until late August. While 2015 may prove more problematic, especially if crude prices stay around current levels of $72/B, it is too soon to say that Qatar may have to cut its liberal spending on either domestic infrastructure or its interventionist foreign policy. (CONTINUED - 1874 WORDS)
