- DOHA: Qatar’s government budget spending will be much higher in the upcoming 2012/13 fiscal year than in the current one, while inflation is likely to move around 3-3.5 percent, an economic adviser to the country’s emir said.
Asked how government expenditure would look in the new fiscal year, which starts in April, Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim said: “It will be a lot higher.”
In its 2011/12 budget, the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter originally planned spending worth 139.9 billion riyals ($38.4 billion) and a surplus of 22.5 billion riyals, or 4.9 percent of gross domestic product.
Partly in response to unrest seen elsewhere in the Middle East, Qatar hiked basic salaries and social benefits for state civilian employees by 60 percent last September, while military staff received 50-120 percent rises.
The IMF estimated social measures would add $1.6 billion to expenditure in 2011/12.
