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Qatar Sets Budget For 2017

Qatar Sets Budget For 2017

Qatar put down a tighter budget for 2017.

The Qatari Emir has approved the a new draft budget for the upcoming year. The state is predicting a slight deficit of QAR 28.3 billion, and are preparing to deal with it as effectively as possible.

The Qatari Ministry of Finance has revealed its plans, which include spending QAR 198.4 billion over the next year, and are estimating to make some QAR 170.1 billion in revenue.

The country has in fact not dealt with a deficit in over 15 years, but started to foresee a shortfall as global oil prices dropped drastically in last two years. Qatar has been trying to move away from a energy-fuel based economy and has set down a plan to do so by 2030, but it is a very difficult and detailed process.

This upcoming year however, the country will be better off economically than this past one. This year the country witnessed an estimate of QAR 46.5 billion deficit, and compared to the 28.3 billion expected for next year, it will be a walk through the park. This also means that the Qatari authorities are dealing with the issue effectively.

This new budget however is based on the assumption that oil barrels would sell for $45 a piece. However, they are currently being traded at $54 a barrel, and are expected to go up in price since OPEC and other oil-exporting countries agreed to decrease oil production recently.

Qatar still has a lot of projects which need a lot of spending. According to officials, 40% of next year’s budget will go to major projects, like the 2022 World Cup venues. Whereas 10% of the budget will go to education, with the main focus of constructing 17 new schools and nurseries and finishing 28 educational buildings that are currently under construction.

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