Qatar’s Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics has cut its GDP growth forecasts for 2016-18 and has raised the budget deficit for these three years, from its previous projections six months ago (MEES, 23 December 2015).
The ministry’s freshly-released Qatar Economic Outlook (QEO) 2016-18 projects that real GDP will rise by 3.9% in 2016, down from the December projection of +4.3%, while 2016’s projected budget deficit, the first in 15 years, is now expected to equate to 7.8% of nominal GDP (4.8%). For 2015 Qatar recorded a surplus of QR21.3bn ($5.85bn) equating to 3.5% of GDP, the report indicates. (CONTINUED - 893 WORDS)
