Qatar forecasts budget surplus

Gas-rich Qatar on Thursday unveiled a budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year that forecasts 22.5 billion riyals ($6.1 billion) in surplus revenues. The foreign ministry predicted 162.4 billion riyals ($44.5 billion) in record revenues, a 27 percent increase over the previous fiscal year and 139.9 billion riyals ($38.4 billion) in expenditure, 19 percent up on 2010-2011. The Qatari fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31. As in the previous fiscal year, revenues were calculated based on a crude oil price of 55 dollars per barrel, although oil has been trading above 100 dollars a barrel because of the conflict in Libya. Qatar expects 20 percent economic growth in 2011, compared with 16.3 percent in 2010, thanks largely to the expansion of its capacity to produce gas and public sector spending, the ministry said in a statement. Around 41 percent of expenditure was allocated to infrastructure projects, including the ongoing construction of Doha airport, the building of a new port and a study to build a railway. Qatar is due to host the 2022 football World Cup and handball world championships in 2015. The small OPEC member, with a production quota of some 800,000 barrels per day, has natural gas reserves estimated at more than 900 trillion cubic feet (25 trillion cubic metres), ranking it third in the world after Russia and Iran. In December it announced having succeeded in raising its capacity to produce 77 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas -- becoming a leader exporter of LNG.