Mubasher: The Qatari government on Wednesday approved the 2018 draft budget and sent it to the Qatar's Consultative Assembly (the Shura Council) to be endorsed ahead of January 2018.
The 2018 budget will mainly focus on completing the megaprojects in the major sectors and the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament- related projects, according to the cabinet’s statement.
The statement gave no further details on the volume of spending and revenues in the new budget.
The new draft budget includes boosting food security projects, small and medium-sized projects, tourism, in addition to upgrading infrastructure in the special economic zones (SEZs).
Qatar's government concentrates on increasing non-oil revenues, bolstering public spending, as well as allocating the financial resources to develop citizens’ housing areas, the statement added.
The finance ministry of the gas-rich state forecast to slash the current-year budget deficit by QAR 28.3 billion ($7.37 billion), while revenues stood at QAR 170.1 billion and spending reached QAR 198.4 billion.
