Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Figure 2-58: Number of violators referred to 
persecution 
1300
9264
6618
1540
3049
92
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
April
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Source: Qatar Gulf Times website and PSA preparation 

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Appendix: Economic and Financial Terms 
 
117 
 

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Qatar Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023
 
118 
Appendix: Economic and 
Financial Terms 
Gross Domestic Product 
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a 
fundamental macroeconomic aggregate that 
plays a central role in macroeconomic 
analysis, although it has several limitations, 
as described below. 
What is GDP? 
GDP is widely used as a measure of 
economic output, as it represents the value of 
final goods and services produced in a given 
period of time, usually one year. Another way 
of looking at it is as the sum of value added 
across all sectors in the economy over a 
period. 
How is GDP measured? 
There are three main approaches to measure 
GDP, which should give the same results. 
•
Production approach: GDP is equal to the 
sum of value added across all sectors i.e. 
the gross output minus the value of 
intermediate consumption of goods and 
services summed across all sectors. 
•
Expenditure approach: GDP is the sum of 
the final consumption of goods and 
services by the government and private 
sector; of gross investment (additions to 
physical stock of capital in the economy, 
including changes in inventories); and of 
net exports of goods and non-factor 
services (exports minus imports). 
•
Income approach: GDP is the sum of all 
income generated from the production 
process. This includes compensation of 
employees, and the gross operating 
surplus of enterprises such as profits, 
rents, and interest. 
What is the difference between GDP valued 
at factor cost and GDP valued at market 
prices? 
GDP at factor cost is the sum of all factors-
of-production incomes generated from the 
production process (such as wages, profits, 
rents and interest), while GDP valued at 
market prices is GDP at factor cost plus 
indirect output taxes, less subsidies to 
businesses, which creates a wedge between 
the incomes earned by factors of production 
and the price paid for output in the market. 
What is the difference between nominal and 
real GDP? 
Nominal GDP values economic output using 
current prices, the prices prevailing over the 
period during which GDP is measured. 
Accordingly, changes in nominal GDP will 
reflect changes in prices as well as changes 
in the volume of output. Real GDP values 
output at constant prices by using the prices 
of a selected year called the “base year”. 
When relative prices change, the choice of 
the base year can influence measured real 
GDP growth. 
What is the GDP deflator? 
This is simply the ratio of nominal and real 
GDP, and hence it can be considered a 
measure of the aggregate price level of all 
domestically produced goods and services in 
the economy. 
What is GDP per capita? 
This is total GDP divided by the resident 
population of the country. While it is 
commonly used as a proxy for the standard 
of living, GDP per capita is neither a measure 
of personal income nor is it usually even 
loosely approximating a representative well-
being index of a country’s population. 

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