Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Preparation team: 
Under the supervision of Noora Nasser Almerekhi, Director of Strategic Planning Department 
(SPD), the report, was authored and edited by Dr. Mohammed Alsabbry in both Arabic and 
English. Dr. Mohammed Alafendi and Dr. Hasan Omari reviewed the Arabic version, while Dr. 
Lenard Milich reviewed the English version. Martin Poveda also reviewed the interpretation of 
economic statistics data and methodology. Hissa Alassiry took over the logistical follow-up of the 
report preparation; Mohamed Elsharqawy & Ziad Naasani provided translation support, while 
Osama Almanasir helped in preparing the report for publication.
 

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Qatar Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023
 
iv 
Introduction
A decade has passed since the publication of 
the first issue in 2011 of the State of Qatar's 
Economic Outlook Report. The QEO is 
concerned with monitoring economic and 
social developments in Qatar, and the 
nation’s future prospects in response to 
developments all over the world and at all 
levels. It is surely evident, then, that this 
current issue (13) is published under 
economic and social conditions that are 
markedly different from the first issue, 
underscored by the developments, events, 
and facts that the world has gone through 
during the past decade, some of which had a 
significant impact on changing the business 
environment in the State of Qatar both 
directly and indirectly. The most important 
indirect effects can be summarized as 
follows: 
1. The selection of Qatar in 2011 to host the 
2022 FIFA World Cup led to the influx of 
expatriate workers, amounting to at least 
one million workers, in order to work for the 
implementation of investment projects in 
the field of infrastructure, including the 
requisite sports facilities. 
2. Worldwide developments in information 
technology have led to change in many 
modern means of production, which have 
had a large impact on the structure of the 
economies of the world, including Qatar’s 
economy, which witnessed a change in the 
contributions of its sectors. 
3. Global developments in the management 
of planning and development of human, 
economic, and environmental resources 
have led Qatar to align its economic, 
social, and environmental policies to keep 
pace with the requirements of achieving 
the SDGs for 2030 (Agenda for 
Sustainable Development) as well as 
alignment with the 2015 Paris Climate 
Accords (the “Paris Agreement”). 
4. The composition of the global as well as 
Qatar trade’s has been buffeted by the 
negative consequences of heightened 
protectionist trade policies and barriers, 
along with various international trade 
disputes, since the Brexit referendum of 
June 2016, and the later price war 
between China and the United States 
starting in March 2018, as well as the 
replacement of the renegotiated North 
American Free Trade Agreement with the 
United States – Mexico – Canada in 
September 2018. 
As for the direct impacts, they can be broadly 
categorized as follows: 
1. The change in the international commodity 
price-setting mechanism, which is now 
largely subject to global supply and 
demand forces, including food, oil, and gas 
prices - especially during the period (2014-
2020) - led to a decline in Qatari export 
revenues, but at the same time, Qatar 
benefited from the decline in the value of 
food imports, which led to a decrease in 
the inflation index. 
2. The positive results of the measures taken 
to confront the negative effects of the 
2017-2020 blockade helped the Qatari 
economy to increase the local production 
of many food commodities, and even 
succeeded in pushing the Qatari economy 
to become more independent in air and 
sea transport, finding new shipping lanes, 
and expanding export and import ports. 
3. The Covid-19 crisis and the accompanying 
containment measures had an impact that 
still reverberates globally, in the decline in 
the productivity of many economic 
activities, especially among non-oil 
activities. 
Contrary to the usual practice in the 
preparation of previous reports that covered 

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