Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Part 2 - Economic Performance 2017 - 2020 
 
 
73 
the digitization of many service and 
production activities, which may lead in the 
near future to raising efficient use of 
resources, expanding the use of financial and 
banking services, and increasing the 
productivity of SMEs, which will in turn 
increase 
SMEs’ 
competitiveness 
in 
international markets, as well as increasing 
transparency in the business environment. 
However, in order for such ambitions to 
materialize, the private sector must work 
hand-in-hand with the government to 
continue investing in information technology 
and data infrastructure in order to facilitate 
the use of digital tools in education, health, 
commerce, supply chains, and production.
 
Impacts of Improved Oil and Gas 
Markets
As mentioned previously, the decrease in 
annual average global oil and gas prices in 
2020 contributed to: (1) a decline in the 
nominal GDP by 18%, and (2) a decline in the 
value of merchandise exports by 29%, which 
led to: (a) a decrease in the state’s public 
revenues from oil and gas by 21.5%, and (b) 
the decline of the current account of the 
balance of payments by 2.5% of GDP. This, 
in turn, affected the course of non-oil 
activities, especially those depending on 
public and mixed sector financing. However, 
the rate of decline varied at the quarterly 
level, as many economic activities have 
recovered since the beginning of Q4 of 2020, 
as follows: 
Recovery of Qatar’s Value of 
Exports
The nominal value of Qatari exports is 
affected by the change in global prices and 
quantities of demand for hydrocarbon 
products. Any adjustment in energy prices, 
negatively or positively, leads to a direct 
change on the export curve with a direct 
relationship of 97%, as shown in Figure (2-
19), as the decrease in the rate of change in 
energy prices by 39.4% in 2015 led to a 
decrease in the rate of change in the value of 
exports by 39.2%.
Likewise, due to the average rate of change 
in energy prices in 2020 declining by about 
31.3% due to the decrease in global demand 
as a result of the social and business 
closures and the accompanying uncertainty, 
together with the price war that broke out 
between energy producing and exporting 
countries, these factors combining led to a 
decrease in the rate of change in the nominal 
value of exports by about 29.4%. 
Nonetheless, when calculating the value of 
exports at constant prices using the World 
Bank's monthly energy index based on 2010 
dollars as a deflation index, the calculated 
exports data showed that they relatively 
increased. Notably, once prices improved 
during the first three quarter of 2021, the 
nominal value of exports improved 
significantly by 57% compared with the same 
period in 2020.