Economy

Imports
$39.4 billion (2022). Gas Turbines ($2.45B), Jewellery ($2.37B), Cars ($2.28B), Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($1.04B), and Broadcasting Equipment ($1.04B), importing mostly from United Arab Emirates ($5.12B), China ($4.4B), United States ($3.81B), United Kingdom ($3.08B), and India ($2.1B).

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 20 Middle Eastern and North African countries and 77th out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Exports
$119 billion (2022). Petroleum Gas ($66.9B), Crude Petroleum ($20.8B), Refined Petroleum ($14.9B), Nitrogenous Fertilizers ($3.42B), and Ethylene Polymers ($2.54B), exporting mostly to China ($21.1B), India ($17.4B), Japan ($12B), South Korea ($10.6B), and United Kingdom ($7.5B).

In 2022, Qatar was the world’s biggest exporter of Sulphur ($1.64B).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 6th out of 18 Northern African and Western Asian countries, 50th 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 68.8 out of 100) ranked 3rd out of 14 Middle Eastern countries and ranked 28th out of 186 countries worldwide (2023, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Media

Media language
Arabic, English

Information channels
Qatar invests heavily in its media sector, notably its flagship broadcaster Al Jazeera, a tool of regional influence. Most media outlets are owned by the state, members of the royal family or figures aligned with them. Most outlets take a pro-government stance. Journalists practise self-censorship, avoiding critical reporting on domestic and foreign affairs. The absence of opposition media has left social media as the only space for expressing discontent. Many outlets are sympathetic to Islamist groups, whose figures maintain a significant media presence. A dispute that broke out between Qatar and its Arab neighbours in 2017 sparked a propaganda war, which has dissipated since the signing of a January 2021 agreement to restore ties. BBC World Service radio in Arabic, France’s Arabic-language Monte Carlo Doualiya and Radio Sawa from the US broadcast on FM in Doha.

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

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 
Al-Araby TV – London-based channel owned by the privately-owned Fadaat Media Group, it is largely aligned with the Qatari government.
Al-Hiwar TV – London-based channel founded by Palestinian intellectual Azzam al-Tamimi, said to be funded by Qatar

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, 2.70 million

Share of web traffic by device
71.95% mobile phones, 26.72% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.30% tablet devices and 0.03% other devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
243.95 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
124.59 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 174.2%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 97.1%

Most popular web search engines
Google (95.96%), Bing (3.01%), Yahoo! (0.48%), DuckDuckGo (0.22%), Yandex (0.22%), other (0.12%).

Most used social media
Facebook (69.13%), Instagram (14.39%), Twitter (6.58%), Pinterest (5.15%), YouTube (3.37%), LinkedIn (0.8%), Reddit (0.45%), other (0.13%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
82 yrs (2022)

Corruption perceptions Index
Qatar scored 58 out of 100, ranked 40th out of 180 countries worldwide.

Current health expenditure
2.89% of GDP

CO2 emissions
31.7 metric tons per capita

Current education expenditure
85.1% of total expenditure in public institutions