Economy

Imports
$26.8 (2020). Turbo-jets, turbo-propellers and other gas turbines ($1.81B), Motor cars and other motor vehicles; principally designed for the transport of… ($1.31B), Aircraft (e.g. helicopters, aeroplanes); spacecraft (including satellites) ($1.14B), Jewellery articles and parts thereof, of precious metal or of metal clad ($1.01B), and Light-vessels, fire-floats, dredgers, floating cranes, other vessels ($814M), importing mostly from China ($3.32B), United States ($2.99B), United Kingdom ($2.04B), Germany ($1.79B), and France ($1.7B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 6% have an account with a financial institution
• 32% have a credit card

Ease of doing business
It is easy to conduct business (rated 68.7 out of 100) ranked 7th out of 8 North African and Western Asian countries and 77th out of 190 countries worldwide (2020, World Bank)

Exports
$47.2 billion (2020). Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons ($22.2B), Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals; crude ($9.89B), Petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals, not crude; ($6.14B), Polymers of ethylene, in primary forms ($1.56B), and Fertilizers; mineral or chemical, nitrogenous ($1.15B), exporting mostly to Japan ($8.09B), India ($7.25B), China ($7.09B), South Korea ($6.02B), and Singapore ($2.83B).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 7th out of 19 Northern African and Western Asian countries, 68th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Economic freedom
Moderately free (rated 67.7 out of 100) ranked 3rd out of 14 Middle Eastern countries and ranked 44th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Media

Media language
Arabic, English

Information channels
Influential pan-Arab and international TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera has raised Qatar’s media profile. The Doha-based operation is owned by the Qatar government. Its main Arabic network is a leading pan-Arab TV news station. The broadcaster operates Al-Jazeera English and Bosnia-based Al-Jazeera Balkans. Al-Jazeera Arabic can be outspoken on subjects deemed as sensitive in the region. But the Qatari media observe strict self-censorship on domestic coverage and avoid criticising the state or government. “The government, the royal family and Islam are off limits to reporters”, says Reporters Without Borders. Domestic audiences are catered for by state-run TV and radio. The large expatriate population has access to media from their various home countries. Qatar has daily newspapers in Arabic and English. The main titles have links to the ruling family and there is little or no critical reporting of domestic or foreign policy affairs. BBC World Service radio in Arabic, France’s Arabic-language Monte Carlo Doualiya and Radio Sawa from the US broadcast on FM in Doha. Qatar has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the Middle East. There were 2.6 million internet users by the end of 2017 – around 98% of the population (InternetWorldStats.com).The top social networks are Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram. Authorities filter political criticism, material deemed offensive to Islam, pornographic content and online privacy resources.

Television

Al-Jazeera – influential pan-Arab and international satellite broadcaster, financed by the Qatar government
Qatar TV – state-run; operates main Arabic service, Koran channel, English channel, satellite 

The Press

Al-Watan (The Homeland) – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Al-Rayah (The Banner) – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Al-Sharq (The East) – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Al-Arab – privately-owned, pro-government daily
Gulf Times– – English-language, sister paper of Al-Rayah
The Peninsula – English-language, sister paper of Al-Sharq
Qatar Tribune – English-language, sister paper of Al-Watan

Radio

Qatar Media Corporation (QMC) – state-run, programming in Arabic, English, French, Urdu

News agency

Qatar News Agency – state-run, in English
Qatar Day – portal, in English

Internet Data

Internet users
99% penetration, 2.93 million

Share of web traffic by device
66.07% mobile phones, 32.5% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.34% tablet devices and 0.03% other devices

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
97.90 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
64.16 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 151.8%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 91.5%

Most popular web search engines
Google (97.33%), Bing (2.02%), Yahoo (0.28%), Yandex (0.14%), Petal search (0.12%) DuckduckGo (0.07%)

Most used social media
Facebook (77.23%), Twitter (7.29%), Instagram (5.72%), YouTube (4.8%), Pinterest (3.6%), Linkedin (0.62%)

Social statistics

Life expectancy
80 yrs (2020)

Unemployment
0.3% (2021)

Average age of the population
32.3 yrs (2019)

Literacy
93.18% (2018)

Healthcare expenditure
2.91% of GDP (2019)