Professional Toastmasters Club

Surging Economy
Qatar was the star performer in the past four years, recording the highest real GDP growth among the Gulf countries at 7 percent in 2000, 5.2 percent in 2001, 4 percent in 2002 and a staggering 12 percent for last year.

Qatar plans to spend about $130bn on infrastructure and industry during the next few years, according to the Qatar Financial Centre's website. Qatar gross domestic product grew about 8 per cent last year to $54bn, spurred by higher oil prices and sales of natural gas.

Qatar was catapulted onto the world stage in 1971 thanks to the discovery of its oil and natural gas fields. The offshore gas field, situated north-east of Qatar, is thought to be the largest single natural gas reservoir in the world covering an area of 6,000 sq km.

Natural Gas

Today, Qatar is the number one Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supplier and the third largest gas resource holder in the world.

Qatar's GDP per capita, estimated at US$30,000 in 2005, places it among the wealthiest nations worldwide. In July 2005, Standard & Poor upgraded Qatar's rating from A- to A+ to reflect its strong GDP growth, rapidly developing economy and healthy government.