DOHA: The contribution of Qatar’s “Finance, insurance, real estate and business services” sector to the country’s GDP grew at an average rate of 14.5 percent in 2011. The share of this sector in the GDP was 13.3 percent for 2006-2011, and the Gross Value Added (GVA) increased from QR29.37bn to QR73.72bn. The high performance reflects the expansion in the activity of banks, the growth momentum in the real estate sector during some years, and the buoyancy in the other business services sector, according to a data released by Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) on Tuesday.
The report that analyses Qatar’s leading economic indicators noted Qatar’s total value of exports in 2011 showed an increase of 54.9 percent over 2010. Exports of oil and gas, which represented 93 percent of the country’s total exports, increased by 55.6 percent. The remaining exports comprising mainly petro chemicals and manufactured goods increased on average by 43 percent.
In 2011, the total value of re-exports amounted to QR5.5bn comprising mainly of machinery of equipment and miscellaneous manufactured articles. Compared to 2010, total re-exports was lower by 23.6 percent, mainly attributable to lower re-exports of machinery and equipment.
The share of “Electricity and Water” in the GDP stayed at around 0.4 percent during 2006-2011 period. In 2011, the distribution network as expanded to meet the growing demand for electricity and water. Correspondingly, GVA in nominal terms increased by 23.9 percent in 2011. Producer prices in 2011 remained at the previous level.
An analysis of the data shows that growth in the construction sector was almost zero in 2010. “After three consecutive years-2006 to 2008- of booming activity, with the construction sector growing at a record annual average growth rate of around 60 percent, the level of activity was subdued during the last three years-2009-2011. The growth rate in 2009 is estimated at 6.9 percent, almost zero growth in 2010, and 4.9 percent in 2011”, the QSA report noted.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) for Q2 2012 reached 169.9 showing a rise of 3.6 percent over the corresponding quarter in 2011, and a drop of 4.3 percent over the previous quarter-Q1 2012.
The Peninsula
