Qatar state spending up last FY, slowest in 11 years

Qatar's state spending increased 12.7 percent last fiscal year, the lowest rate in 11 years, as slow growth in current expenditure offset a sharp rise in funds spent on infrastructure projects, data showed on Sunday. Expenditure rose to a record high of 231.7 billion riyals ($63.6 billion) in the year that ended in March, from 205.6 billion riyals in 2012/13, preliminary finance ministry data released by the central bank showed.
Last year's spending was 10 percent more than initially planned. But the margin by which actual spending overshot the plan was the lowest in five years, suggesting the government has begun reining in excesses of the previous four years, when on average it spent almost a quarter more than originally planned.
Doha also seems to have accelerated work on infrastructure projects worth roughly $210 billion that it plans over the next decade or so, many of them related to Qatar's hosting of the 2022 soccer World Cup.
Project spending soared 32.7 percent to 68.4 billion riyals last fiscal year, compared with growth of just 1.9 percent in the previous year.
Difficulties in planning and logistics, as well as bureaucratic obstacles, delayed project spending in the past. Qatar has now scaled down or divided into phases some big-ticket projects, such as a metro, a port and airport facilities, to reduce economic overcapacity risks.
Current expenditure rose 6.0 percent to 163.2 billion riyals in 2013/14, a sharp slowdown from a 24.4 percent jump in each of the previous two years, because of a drop in interest payments and spending on supplies and services. However, public sector wages kept rising strongly.
State revenue in the world's top liquefied natural gas exporter grew 21.9 percent to a record 346.6 billion riyals last fiscal year, slower than the 27.8 percent rise in the previous year.
Revenue growth would have slowed further if Qatar Petroleum had not started transferring its entire financial surplus to the government from 2013.
The 2013/14 budget surplus surged to a record 115.0 billion riyals, or 15.6 percent of gross domestic product, from 78.8 billion riyals or 11.4 percent of GDP in the previous year.