Qatar’s budget for this year is based on an oil price of $65 per barrel. But the average oil price for these three months was 82.2 dollars per barrel. This also resulted in higher income.
The expenditure of the country in the same quarter is 4,890 crores. The country’s finance ministry said the surplus in the budget will be used to repay Qatar’s public debt and increase central bank reserves. The amount may also be used to increase the capital of the Qatar Investment Authority. Europe is now relying on Qatar to replace Russian pipeline gas. Increasing gas demand from Europe could also benefit the country. Earlier it was about 40 percent of total imports.
As competition for liquefied natural gas increases, Qatar has a massive production expansion plan. In the first quarter of 2023, Qatar recorded a budget surplus of 1,970 crore Qatari riyals. The figures were released by the Ministry of Finance. The Gulf country, the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, had expected a budget surplus of 29 billion riyals in 2023.
There are signs that Qatar’s sluggish real estate sector is also waking up. The real estate market in Qatar is undergoing a correction in the first quarter of 2023. Gulf States News Agency had reported that between May 28 and June 1 alone, the real estate business in the country reached about 12.5 billion dollars. Real estate sales between May 21 and 25 alone were worth 7.32 crore dollars.
