Qatar's Gas-Fueled Growth May Slow by Half, Economic Adviser to Emir Says - Bloomberg

Qatar, the world’s fastest-growing economy, may slow by more than half two years from now as the country completes its largest energy projects.

The Persian Gulf emirate, with the world’s third-largest reserves of natural gas, will likely post “double digit” growth for the next two years, said Ibrahim Ibrahim, economic adviser to Qatar’s emir. Expansion will cool after that to an annual nominal rate of no more than 9 percent, assuming the government follows the guidance of senior economic planners, he said yesterday in an interview in the Qatari capital of Doha.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Qatar’s gross domestic product will increase this year by 19 percent, faster than any other economy and double the country’s growth rate for 2009. Energy wealth helped Qatar’s economy triple in size since 2004. The population has doubled over the same period, as thousands of foreign workers arrived to build plants for liquefying natural gas and the world’s biggest facility for converting gas to liquid fuels.