Middle East and Central Asia > Qatar

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International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Growth normalization after the 2022 FIFA World Cup continued with signs of activities strengthening more recently. Fiscal and external surpluses softened mainly due to lower hydrocarbon prices. Banks are healthy but pockets of vulnerabilities remain. Reform momentum has strengthened, guided by the Third National Development Strategy (NDS3).
Mr. Andrew Baer
,
Mr. Kwangwon Lee
, and
James Tebrake
Digitalization and the innovative use of digital technologies is changing the way we work, learn, communicate, buy and sell products. One emerging digital technology of growing importance is cloud computing. More and more businesses, governments and households are purchasing hardware and software services from a small number of large cloud computing providers. This change is having an impact on how macroeconomic data are compiled and how they are interpreted by users. Specifically, this is changing the information and communication technology (ICT) investment pattern from one where ICT investment was diversified across many industries to a more concentrated investment pattern. Additionally, this is having an impact on cross-border flows of commercial services since the cloud service provider does not need to be located in the same economic territory as the purchaser of cloud services. This paper will outline some of the methodological and compilation challenges facing statisticians and analysts, provide some tools that can be used to overcome these challenges and highlight some of the implications these changes are having on the way users of national accounts data look at investment and trade in commercial services.
Mr. Emre Alper
and
Michal Miktus
Higher digital connectivity is expected to bring opportunities to leapfrog development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Experience within the region demonstrates that if there is an adequate digital infrastructure and a supportive business environment, new forms of business spring up and create jobs for the educated as well as the less educated. The paper first confirms the global digital divide through the unsupervised machine learning clustering K-means algorithm. Next, it derives a composite digital connectivity index, in the spirit of De Muro-Mazziotta-Pareto, for about 190 economies. Descriptive analysis shows that majority of SSA countries lag in digital connectivity, specifically in infrastructure, internet usage, and knowledge. Finally, using fractional logit regressions we document that better business enabling and regulatory environment, financial access, and urbanization are associated with higher digital connectivity.
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
This Selected Issues paper discusses measures required to enhance nonhydrocarbon revenue to support fiscal consolidation in Qatar. Qatar depends heavily on the hydrocarbon sector for exports and revenue receipts. The authorities have embarked on fiscal consolidation, underpinned by cuts to current expenditures and enhanced efforts to raise additional revenue. Safeguarding Qatar’s wealth to ensure intergenerational equity and ensure adequate resources for the implementation of the second National Development Strategy would entail increased mobilization of nonhydrocarbon revenue in the near to medium term. Exploring other sources of tax revenue to diversify the government revenue structure and build a stable tax revenue base is also critical.
International Monetary Fund
The Executive Board of the IMF on July 25, 2011, has approved a disbursement of an amount equivalent to SDR 1.245 million under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to help the country meet the urgent balance-of-payments need caused by torrential rains, flooding, and landslides in April that caused extensive damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and housing. The RCF, which provides rapid financial assistance for low-income countries with an urgent balance-of-payments need, does not require any program-based conditionality or review.
International Monetary Fund
This paper is focused on a detailed assessment report on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism for Qatar. There is no fundamental principle in Qatari law that would prohibit the courts from applying the money laundering offense to the person who has committed the predicate crime. Qatar has adopted a comprehensive confiscation, freezing, and seizing framework under the AML Law, which enables the authorities to remove all assets linked with a money laundering offense or its predicate.
International Monetary Fund
Qatar’s report on the Observance of Standards and Codes for the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) is described. The two sectors that compose the financial system, the domestic sector and the Qatar Financial Center, are subject to different sets of preventive measures, which vary in depth and comprehensiveness. The allocation of resources to AML/CFT appears to be uneven, particularly in view of the rapid development and diversification of the economy.