Qatar, hit by low energy prices and the soaring costs of hosting the 2022 World Cup, approved its 2017 budget on Thursday with a deficit of $7.77 billion (7.45 billion euros). The Gulf state's Finance Minister Ali Shareef al-Emadi said the shortfall was down 39 percent on last year due to streamlining measures including public sector job cuts.
The major gas and oil exporter expects revenues of 170 billion Qatari riyals ($46.7 billion, 44.8 billion euros), nine percent up from 2016 estimates, partly due to growing non-oil revenues, Emadi said. The budget, Qatar's second consecutive deficit after 15 straight years in surplus, was calculated on the basis of an oil price of $45 per barrel, Emadi told the official Qatar News Agency.
That is slightly lower than its current rate of just over $50. Emadi said public spending would be down two percent compared to last year. The government is trying to save money by merging ministries and laying off public sector workers and plans to slash the public wage bill by 1.5 billion riyals.
Doha hopes to avoid dipping into currency reserves or investments, but will finance the deficit by selling debt on international markets, he added. The state is planning to commission projects worth 46.1 billion riyals over the next year, including around 8.5 billion riyals on World Cup infrastructure. Qatar has the world's third-largest natural gas reserves and produces between 700,000 and 800,000 barrels of oil a day. Like other Gulf countries, it has been forced to tighten its belt since its revenues plunged following a 2014 collapse in the price of crude. Despite a recent recovery, oil prices remain at about half their mid-2014 levels.
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