Analyses & Studies

IMF Staff Concludes Staff Visit with Qatar - May 2023

Facts on recent economic and financial sector developments, and the authorities’ policy actions and plans.

• A decade of the nation’s plan to diversify the economy culminated into the successful hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with very strong growth registered in the year.
• After the World Cup, the economy is expected to normalize in the near term, while remaining robust. Despite global headwinds, Qatar’s near- to medium-term outlook is relatively favorable supported by the ongoing LNG expansion and sustained domestic demand.
• Broad fiscal discipline amid large hydrocarbon windfalls resulted in a significant fiscal surplus in 2022 and a sizeable reduction of the central government debt ratio.
• As domestic monetary policy has tightened, consistent with the currency peg to the U.S. dollar, banks’ asset quality, liquidity and profitability remained solid, and their reliance on nonresident deposits has fallen.
• The ambitious structural reform agenda underpins Qatar’s economic diversification efforts to build a more inclusive, knowledge-based and greener economy.

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