Dubai: Qatar surpassed Luxembourg as the world's richest nation in 2010 and is set to pull away with wealth that's almost twice that of the US, latest estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show.
The ‘Chart of the Day' shows Qatar's gross domestic product per capita at $88,221 (Dh323,997) in 2010, beating Luxembourg for the top spot, according to IMF data released on Tuesday. The figure may reach $111,963 by 2016, surpassing Luxembourg's $94,621 and Singapore's $70,992, the IMF said. US GDP per capita is forecast at $55,622 in five years, from $46,860 in 2010.
Special recipe
"It's the combination of wealth, growth and a small population," said Paul Cooper, Dubai-based managing director at Sarasin-Alpen and Partners, which oversees more than $500 million in the Middle East.
Qatar, the host of the 2022 football World Cup, forecasts economic growth of about 16 per cent in 2011 and projects a budget surplus of $6.1 billion this fiscal year.
The IMF estimates Qatar will have the world's fastest-growing economy for a second year. Qatar, which is smaller than Connecticut, has a population of about 848,000, according to the CIA World Factbook.
The country, the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, has reached its target of 77 million tonnes of annual production.
