Qatar's real gross domestic product grew 8.7 percent last year, lower than expected but still benefiting from gas sector growth, according to revised data from the country's statistics office on Thursday. The world's largest natural gas exporter is set to largely outperform Saudi Arabia and the UAE in coming years helped by expansion of its gas facilities and government infrastructure spending. “These are preliminary results and are subject to revisions as more information is gathered but our estimate revisions, in future of the past data, will not be as big as we experienced,” Qatar Statistics Authority said in a statement on Thursday. The 2009 growth figure is lower than the 11 per cent cited by OPEC member's deputy prime minister in January. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the cash-rich economy to grow by 9.5 percent in 2009. The GDP jumped 25.4 per cent in 2008, the data showed. The statisticians reintroduced reporting real GDP growth and revised growth rates both in constant 2004 prices and current prices for 2005-2009, saying they were trying to collect producer prices to measure real GDP more accurately. The QSA also said it was developing a system of short-term indicators, which will be compiled quarterly and released within a quarter after the reference quarter. The office did not publish real GDP data by expenditure, only giving the breakdown by industrial sectors. Economic data are hard to find across the Gulf with some oil producers lagging by months, though the situation has been improving recently. The oil and gas sector grew by 7.7 percent in real terms last year, accounting for 49.6 percent of GDP. Government services with an 11.6 percent share saw a 43.2 percent jump. A Reuters poll showed last month Qatar's economy was likely to expand by 16.1 percent this year before cooling down to 10.0 percent growth in 2011 with fiscal stimulus seen staying strong unlike elsewhere in the world.
