Qatar Economic Adviser at the Emiri Diwan Expects New Budget Spending to Exceed QAR 200 Billion

Doha, March 31 (QNA) - HE the Economic Adviser at the Emiri Diwan Dr. Ibrahim Al Ibrahim has expected that spending in the State of Qatar's new budget of 2013/2014 to exceed the barrier of QAR 200 billion to set the highest value in its history compared to about QAR 178 billion last year. In an interview with Qatari daily newspaper Al Arab published today, Dr. Al Ibrahim explained that the new budget, which usually begins each year on the first of April and ending on March 31, will be based on a USD 65 conservatory price of oil barrel in order to make sure that spending in the budget will be covered, saying: " When adopting the budget we work on taking the price of oil as a conservatory price to make sure that the budget at least covers expenses, therefore even if the prices were more than $ 100 a barrel, the state remains conservative in adopting its budget because spending can not be adopted on the bases of uncertain matters. " On the the new budget's achievement of fiscal surpluses, Dr. Al Ibrahim pointed out that you can not talk about the surplus of 2013 - 2014 budget because of inability to identify trends of oil prices at the moment, but he expected positive results. He also expected a budget surplus for the 2012-2013 financial year. The surplus will be mainly due to the high prices of oil and gas which brought a revenue far exceeding $100 billion, that's despite the decrease in gas prices due to the new discoveries made recently, he added. HE the Economic Adviser at the Emiri Diwan Dr. Ibrahim Al Ibrahim said that Qatar's non-oil sector must grow by 10-12% in the next few years if they are to maintain a growth of 6-8%, this is because oil production has reached its peak and will not see relevant growth in coming years, he noted. Added that that Qatar is doing studies to push their LNG production beyond the 77 million tons a year, the results of these studies will be ready by 2015. He stressed that Qatar's revenues from the energy and industry sector are sufficient for the country to finish its urgent projects in preparation for the World Cup 2022. (QNA)