State of Qatar

دولة قطر Dawlat Qaṭar State of Qatar


Anthem السلام الأميري As-salām al-amīrī Amiri Salute


Capital	Doha

Government	Absolute monarchy
Emir
- From 2007	Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani
Prime Minister
- From 1971	Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani

Legislature	Consultative Assembly

History
- September 3, 1971	Established

Area	11,437 km²

Population
- 2010	1,696,563
Density	148.3/km²

GDP	2010 (PPP)
- Total	US$ 150.2 billion
- Per capita	US$ 88,558

Currency	Riyal

Federation of Arab Emirates
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The State of Qatar is a absolute monarchy in Southwest Asia.

Background

Ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-1800s, Qatar transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas revenues. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by the Amir, who had ruled the country since 1972. His son, the current Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa Al Thani, overthrew him in a bloodless coup in 1995. In 2001, Qatar resolved its longstanding border disputes with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. As of 2007, oil and natural gas revenues had enabled Qatar to attain the second-highest per capita income in the world.^[1]

Economy

Despite the global financial crisis, Qatar has prospered in the last several years - in 2010 Qatar had the world's highest growth rate. Qatari authorities throughout the crisis sought to protect the local banking sector with direct investments into domestic banks. GDP rebounded in 2010 largely due to the increase in oil prices. Economic policy is focused on developing Qatar's nonassociated natural gas reserves and increasing private and foreign investment in non-energy sectors, but oil and gas still account for more than 50% of GDP, roughly 85% of export earnings, and 70% of government revenues. Oil and gas likely have made Qatar the highest per-capita income country - ahead of Liechtenstein - and the country with the lowest unemployment. Proved oil reserves of 25 billion barrels should enable continued output at current levels for 57 years. Qatar's proved reserves of natural gas exceed 25 trillion cubic meters, about 14% of the world total and third largest in the world. Qatar's successful 2022 world cup bid will likely accelerate large-scale infrastructure projects such as Qatar's metro system and the Qatar-Bahrain causeway.^[2]