Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Stability of the Public Debt 
The public debt (government’s net debt) 
decreased from QR 398 billion in 2019 to QR 
382 billion at the end of 2020, as shown in 
Figure (2-29). Most of this decline was due to 
the payment of local (domestic/internal) debt 
installments, together with the non-issuance 
of any domestic public debt instruments, 
leading the domestic debt to decrease from 
QR 173.3 billion in 2019 to QR 152.8 billion 
at the end of 2020. With regard to the net 
foreign debt level in December 2020, it rose 
from QR 225 billion in 2019 to QR 229 billion 
at the end of 2020, due to the issuance of 
international sovereign bonds in 2020 as well 
as borrowing from international financial 
institutions at the LIBOR rate
(
LIBOR will be 
eliminated see Box 2-7). However, a large 
part of Qatar’s foreign debt installments was 
paid during 2020, which resulted in a net 
increase of external debt, as enumerated 
above, of about QR 4 billion.
And based on the statement of the general 
budget for the second and third quarters of 
2021, issued by the Ministry of Finance, it 
indicates that the total foreign debt 
installments that paid and will be repaid 
during 2021 are about QR 15.3 billion.
Regarding the net flow of domestic debt in 
2021 will amount to about QR 10.2 billion, 
and therefore the total public debt will reach 
about QR 382 billion by end of 2021, as 
Figure (2-29) indicates. 
Figure 2-28: Public sector accounts with the 
banking sector
 
282
283
319
380
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
2016
2017
2018
2019
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
(N
ov
)
Annual
2020
2021
QR
b
illi
on
Po
int
s 
& 
%
Public enterprise deposits
Government deposits
Public enterprise credits
Government credits
Public deposits (R-axis - QR bln)
Public credits (R-axis - QR bln)
Source: QCB and prepared by PSA

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