Qatar’s Economy Growth Slowed To 6.2% In 2012

Qatar’s rate of economic growth more than halved last year to 6.2 per cent as a surge in global oil prices abated, but its construction, finance and manufacturing sectors expanded by a around a third and should grow again this year.

Output in mining and quarrying, which includes oil and gas and accounts for almost half of the Arab Gulf state’s GDP, rose only 1.7 per cent last year following a surge in oil prices which drove the economy overall to 13 per cent growth in 2011, the country’s statistics authority said.

But the construction and finance sectors, which each account for more than a tenth of GDP, both grew by 34 per cent, while manufacturing expanded by 28 per cent.

Quarterly growth in the fourth quarter slowed to 0.1 per cent from the 1.7 per cent rise in the third quarter, the statistics authority said, but was still 6.6 per cent year-on-year.

Earlier this month Finance Minister Youssef Kamal said Qatar, the world’s top natural gas exporter, expects more rapid growth in its non-hydrocarbon economy this year.

“We expect in 2013 to see nine per cent growth in the non-hydrocarbon sector. In the hydrocarbon sector, we do not expect to see an increase before 2017,” he told a financial conference.