Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Qatar Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023
 
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Figure 2-55: Evolution of Qatar imports by regions 
–
 total in QR billion and region as percentage of total ........... 104 
Figure 2-
56: Qatar’s value of imports according to BEC classific
ation (QR billion) .................................................. 105 
Figure 2-57: Evolution trajectory of COVID-19 cases & measures to limit its spread .............................................. 107 
Figure 2-58: Number of violators referred to persecution ....................................................................................... 116 

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Part 1: Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023 
1 
PART 1: ECONOMIC 
OUTLOOK 2021 -2023 
Global and Regional Economic 
Outlooks 
Since the first case was reported with 
coronavirus infection in China on 17 
November 2019, and its subsequent 
outbreak as a global pandemic, more than 
306 million infections and nearly 5.6 million 
deaths have been officially recorded 
worldwide as caused by the virus until the 
early January 2022.
1
Many people's daily activities including 
working, studying, and even home chores 
have undergone dramatic changes, as travel 
remains disrupted, prices of basic 
commodities continue their oscillations. As 
an example of these changes, many people 
are now accustomed to cooking at homes as 
a result of the frequent closures of 
restaurants. More broadly, when faced with 
income uncertainty, millions of households 
globally reduced their expenditure on 
services in favor of increasing their savings.
Such developments led to a decline in the 
global economy in 2020 by 3.1%, according 
to the estimates of the International Monetary 
Fund issued at the end of October 2021, 
which means that the global economy lost 
about $22 trillion compared to its pre-
epidemic estimates in January 2020. 
Although the IMF has projected the global 
economy to recover by about 6% in 2021 and 
by a further 4.9% in 2022, there is, however, 
a marked divergence in the level of recovery 
among the countries of the world, as the 
growth forecasts for developed countries will 
exceed what it was before the pandemic by 
1
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
2
https://blogs.imf.org/2021/07/20/seizing-the-opportunity-for-a-pro-
growth-post-pandemic-world/ 
0.9% in 2024, while for emerging and 
developing economies (excluding China) it is 
estimated to be lower than it was before the 
pandemic, by 5.5% in 2024. This difference 
is attributed to the disparity in the size of 
financial support policies and the gap in the 
vaccination rate (Box 1-1). 
The support policies taken by many countries 
around the world, such as the postponing of 
loan repayments, the reduction of interest 
rates, and the provision of financial support 
for the continuation of economic and social 
activities, has amounted to about $16 trillion
2
according to an informed source from the 
International Monetary Fund's blog. An 
additional impact has been the global 
increase among central banks of their 
balance sheets by about $7.5 trillion. These 
policies have successfully limited the 
deterioration of the world's economies, which 
might have been as much as three times 
larger had it not been for such bold policies. 
On the other hand, the same policies have 
contributed to the deterioration of the fiscal 
balances of many countries, raising the level 
of global debt by $28 trillion
3
, and even 
reducing their financial capabilities to further 
provide support. 
Also, the spread of new waves of the 
pandemic (new mutations and variants of the 
virus, like Delta and Omicron) have exposed 
many countries of the world to the risks of not 
recovering quickly due to the need of 
imposing new precautionary and preventive 
measures, as has happened in European 
countries, others countries among them, 
South Africa, India, Malaysia, etc. 
3
https://blogs.imf.org/2021/12/15/global-debt-reaches-a-record-226-
trillion/

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