The Ministry of Finance in Qatar has announced that the state budget recorded a surplus of two billion riyals ($548.9 million) during the first quarter of this year, according to the Qatar News Agency (QNA). While the general budget had a surplus, these funds will be directed towards reducing public debt, so there was no cash surplus available.
Total revenues for the first quarter of 2024 amounted to about 53.4 billion riyals, with 47.3 billion riyals coming from oil and gas revenues, while non-oil revenues were 6.1 billion riyals, a decrease of 22.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023. Despite this decrease in non-oil revenues, total public spending in the first quarter of this year was about 51.4 billion riyals, which included 16.3 billion riyals for salaries and wages, 18.8 billion riyals for current expenses, 1.4 billion riyals for secondary capital expenditures, and 14.6 billion riyals for major capital expenditures. This represented a 5% increase compared to the first quarter of the previous year.
