Qatar

Ruled by the Al-Thani family since the mid-1800s, Qatar transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas revenues. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by the Amir, who had ruled the country since 1972. His son, the current Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa Al-Thani, overthrew him in a bloodless coup in 1995. In 2001, Qatar resolved its longstanding border disputes with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. As of 2007, oil and natural gas revenues had enabled Qatar to attain the second-highest per capita income in the world.

Economical characteristics

• Currency: Riyal (ISO code: QAR)
• Central bank discount rate: 5.5% (31 December 2009)
• Commercial banks lending rate: 6.84% (31 December 2008)
• Stock of money (M1): $14.59 billion (31 December 2009)
• Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $44.5 billion (31 December 2009)

Statistics

Statistic / Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
GDP (million USD)	12 393	17 760	17 538	19 364	23 534	31 734	42 463	56 770	71 041
Govt. debt (% of GDP)
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)						47.048	41.995	41.516	45.452
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)						23.468	20.797	23.770	17.769
Debt to revenue (years)

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

External links

• Qatar on Wikipedia
• Central bank of Qatar
• Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
• BBC country profile