DOHA: Qatari government spending in the next financial year will at least match the $32 billion budgeted for 2010/11, and the Gulf country's economic growth will accelerate next year, its finance minister said on Tuesday. "Next year's budget will be no less than this year's," Finance Minister Youssef Kamal told an investment forum. "Forty percent of the budget through 2016 will be allocated for infrastructure projects," he added. Qatar, the world's top liquefied natural gas exporter, boosted spending by 25 percent to 117.9 billion riyals ($32.4 billion) for the financial year from April 2010, earmarking the increase for infrastructure and gas facilities development. It projects a budget surplus of 9.7 billion for the current year, helped by a rebound in oil prices. The country's sovereign wealth fund is one of the world's biggest investors. Kamal also said the country's debts were not more than 30 percent of gross domestic product, in line with International Monetary Fund forecasts for government debt of 27.2 percent of GDP this year, decreasing from 36.7 percent in 2009. The IMF said in January that Qatar's rising external debt needed to be monitored following a series of debt issues. Qatar's economy is seen outperforming its fellow Gulf Arab crude producers, mainly due to gas output expansion and government infrastructure spending, and Kamal said growth would quicken further. "The economy has grown 16 percent this year, and if prices stay stable in the $70 range, we expect it will grow 21 percent in 2011," he said. Kamal, whose 2010 prediction echoes remarks by the country's central bank governor earlier this week, also said Qatar's economy is expected to expand at a minimum rate of 9 percent after 2016. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast the hydrocarbon-reliant economy to grow 15.5 percent this year and 12.8 percent in 2011, up from 8.7 percent in 2009.
