How can Qatar follow up the World Cup? Well, with another bumper economic year driven by high oil prices and further national investment.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani has approved the state’s general budget for the fiscal year 2023.
Qatar estimates revenue of $62.6bn (QR228bn) next year as oil prices stay high. In the same period spending will be $54.6bn (QR199bn), leaving a budget surplus of $8bn (QR29bn), says Minister of Finance Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari.
Qatar budget approved
It represents a 16.3% increase on the 2022 budget.
Al Kuwari said the increase in public revenues would likely be due to the adoption of an average oil price of $65 per barrel for 2023, up from the $55 per barrel planned in the 2022 budget.
This is due to the high global energy prices in 2022, in addition, that the international institutions’ estimates suggest that the energy prices will continue to rise over the medium term.
Al Kuwari expects Qatar’s total oil and gas revenues for 2023 amount to amount to $52bn (QR186bn) compared to $42.4bn (QR154bn) for 2022, a 20.8 percent increase, adding that the estimates of non-oil revenues for 2023 are kept constant, compared to the 2022 budget at $11.5bn (QR42bn).
Regarding the expenditures in the fiscal year 2023 budget, the Minister said that the expenditures decrease by 2.6 percent from 2022 to reach $54.6bn (QR199b), coinciding with the completion of most of the costs of hosting the World Cup.
Although the expenditure is likely to fall, allocations for salaries and wages in the 2023 budget increase by $17.1bn (QR62.5bn), a 6.3 percent increase.
The allocations for major projects for 2023 decreased by 13.6 percent, compared to 2022, to reach $17.5bn (QR63.9bn).
The allocations for the current expenditure section slightly increase from QR 67.2bn to QR67.5bn. The secondary capital expenditures slightly increase from QR4.6bn to QR5.1bn.
The Minister of Finance indicated that the state continues to focus on the health and education sectors, with QR21.1b allocated to the health sector, about 11 percent of the total expenditures, and QR18.1bn has been allocated for the education sector, nearly 9 percent of the total expenditures.
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