Qatar’s Half Year Deficit Reaches 31.5 Billion Riyals, 44.5 Percent Above the Full Year Plan
Qatar’s state budget recorded a deficit of 21.2 billion riyals in the second quarter, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday, after a deficit of 10.3 billion riyals in the first.
Those two quarters sum to 31.5 billion riyals on our calculation. The budget the state approved for the whole of 2026 projected a deficit of 21.8 billion. The half year has therefore run 9.7 billion riyals past the full year plan, on our calculation, with two quarters still to report.
The quarter more than doubled the first
| Second quarter 2026, billion riyals | Amount |
|---|---|
| Total expenditure | 46.8 |
| Total revenue | 25.6 |
| Deficit | 21.2 |
Revenue and expenditure as the ministry states them, described in its own wording as approximate. The deficit is stated exactly.
The second quarter deficit is 2.06 times the first quarter’s on our calculation, an increase of 105.8 percent. Expenditure ran at 1.83 times revenue in the quarter, also on our calculation.
Set the quarter against the annual plan and the imbalance sits on one side of the account. The approved budget for 2026 assumed revenue of 199 billion riyals and expenditure of 220.8 billion for the full year. The second quarter delivered 12.9 percent of the planned annual revenue and 21.2 percent of the planned annual spending, both on our calculation, against the 25 percent a flat quarter would contribute to each. Spending is running close to plan. Revenue is running at roughly half the rate the plan assumed.
Where the money went
The ministry gives four spending lines and they sum to 46.879 billion riyals, consistent with the approximate 46.8 billion it reports.
| Second quarter 2026 expenditure | Billion riyals | Share of the total |
|---|---|---|
| Current expenditure | 19.662 | 41.9 percent |
| Salaries and wages | 17.611 | 37.6 percent |
| Major capital expenditure | 8.748 | 18.7 percent |
| Minor capital expenditure | 0.858 | 1.8 percent |
Amounts as published, ranked by size. Shares are on our calculation against the 46.879 billion the four lines sum to.
The salary line is the one to hold against the revenue line. At 17.611 billion riyals it absorbed 68.8 percent of everything the state took in during the quarter, on our calculation. Capital spending, the two lines together, came to 9.606 billion or 20.5 percent of the total, so for every riyal of investment the state paid about 1.83 riyals in salaries, on our calculation.
The ministry publishes no explanation for the move in either revenue or expenditure, and no comparison with any earlier year. It does not describe the quarter as a record or an extreme of any kind, and neither does the news agency carrying it.
Why it matters: A first half that has already outrun the full year plan by 44.5 percent on our calculation resets the arithmetic for the rest of 2026, and the quarter’s own numbers show which side of the account did it: expenditure landed near a quarterly share of plan while revenue landed at roughly half of one. For a hydrocarbon exporter the revenue line is the price line.
Outlook: The third quarter figures should follow the same route, the ministry’s own account, and the ministry’s next budget press conference is scheduled for 10 December. Two things are worth watching: whether revenue recovers toward its quarterly share of plan, and whether the state trims the capital lines, which are the only part of the mix that can move quickly, since salaries at 37.6 percent of outlays cannot.
Sources: Ministry of Finance of Qatar, Qatar News Agency.
