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© 2024 International Monetary Fund
SIP/2024/010
IMF Selected Issues Paper
Middle East and Central Asia Department
From HydroCarbon to Hightech: Mapping the Economic Transformation of Qatar
Prepared by Chandana Kularatne, Ken Miyajima and Dirk Muir*
Authorized for distribution by Ran Bi
February 2024
IMF Selected Issues Papers are prepared by IMF staff as background documentation for periodic consultations with member countries. It is based on the information available at the time it was completed on December 18, 2023. This paper is also published separately as IMF Country Report No 24/044.
ABSTRACT: Qatar’s state-led, hydrocarbon intensive growth model has delivered rapid growth and substantial improvements in living standards over the past several decades. Guided by the National Vision 2030, an economic transformation is underway toward a more dynamic, diversified, knowledge-based, sustainable, and private sector-led growth model. As Qatar is finalizing its Third National Development Strategy to make the final leap toward Vision 2030, this paper aims to identify key structural reforms needed, quantify their potential impact on the economy, and shed light on the design of a comprehensive reform agenda ahead. The paper finds that labor market reforms could bring substantial benefits, particularly reforms related to increasing the share of skilled foreign workers. Certain reforms to further improve the business environment, such as improving access to finance, could also have large growth impact. A comprehensive, well-integrated, and properly sequenced reform package to exploit complementarities across reforms could boost Qatar’s potential growth significantly.
RECOMMENDED CITATION: Kularatne, Chandana, Ken Miyajima, and Dirk Muir. 2024. “From HydroCarbon to Hightech: Mapping the Economic Transformation of Qatar.” IMF Selected Issues Paper (SIP/2024/010). Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund.
| JEL Classification Numbers: | J24, O14, O25, O38 |
| Keywords: | Economic diversification, economic transformation, Qatar, structural reform |
| Author’s E-Mail Address: | ckularatne@imf.org; kmiyajima@imf.org; dmuir@imf.org; |
| JEL Classification Numbers: | J24, O14, O25, O38 |
| Keywords: | Economic diversification, economic transformation, Qatar, structural reform |
| Author’s E-Mail Address: | ckularatne@imf.org; kmiyajima@imf.org; dmuir@imf.org; |
Title page
SELECTED ISSUES PAPERS
From HydroCarbon to Hightech: Mapping the Economic Transformation of Qatar
Qatar
The authors would like to thank the Planning and Statistics Authority, and participants from the Qatar Central Bank and Ministry of Finance at the 2023 Staff Visit Workshop, for their very helpful suggestions and comments, and Tongfang Yuan for excellent research support.