Qatar sees $593 million budget deficit for 2004-05

Qatar approved a draft budget for 2004/2005 on Sunday which set state spending at 28.4 billion riyals ($7.8 billion) and forecast a gap of 2.16 billion riyals, up from a 1.7 billion riyal deficit the previous fiscal year.
The official Qatari News Agency quoted a Finance Ministry statement as saying state revenue for 2004/2005 was projected at 26.2 billion riyals in the fiscal year which ends on March 31.
The 2003/2004 state budget of the Gulf Arab state had projected total revenue of 21.6 billion riyals against spending of 23.3 billion riyals.
The statement did not say on what oil price the new budget was based. Oil provides around 70 percent of state revenue for oil-and-gas-rich Qatar, a member of Opec. The statement said 8.8 billion riyals had been earmarked for expenditure on education, health, housing and infrastructure projects, up 44 percent from the previous fiscal year.
Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani approved the new budget on Sunday.