Qatar GDP: Soaring or Falling?

"Qatar's GDP to Soar 10% Depite Turmoil" said the Gulf Times today, quoting Samba Financial Group.

Or is it?

The statement ignores inflation, which is currently around 15%. If inflation does not fall, real growth would be around 5%.

Inflation is, in fact, projected to fall to 9%. If it does so, the growth would be around 1%, less than both the current 10% projected by Samba Group and the original 19.6% forecast for this year.

However, as the article points out, Qatar does seem to have an advantage in its reserves of Natural Gas.

Natural Gas projects are still coming on line, which should help maintain revenue growth even with falling prices.

Many Natural Gas projects are also sold on long term contracts, which will hopefully provide a more stable source of revenue than fluctuating oil prices.

Also see: Qatar Business

Aspire park

A pleasant place to spend some time away from the crowded Doha roads is Aspire Park. Hidden away behind Villagio, it is a surpisingly large and green park, complete with children's play area, football piches, greenery and trees.


To get to the tower just head up the road between Villagio and Hyatt Plaza and press the button on the gate - the gate will then open automatically. Alternatively park in Villagio and walk round to the back of the mall.

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Filippinos in Qatar

With the president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, visiting Qatar, Filippinos in Qatar have been in the news recently.

According to their President, reported on Filippino news site Balita, it is good news for them. Instead of potentially losing their jobs in Qatar due to the world credit crunch, she believes that there are a further 37,000 jobs available for them here.

These jobs would be coming at a time when expat workers in other countries are being made redundant.

However, not every Filipinno is confident about the future, as this Al Jazeera video below shows...

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Five Sure Ways to Get Deported from Qatar

Now we don't mean to panic you. Qatar is, in many ways, quite a tolerant country. However, there are a few things that you should really avoid doing.

1. Drink Driving.

There is zero tolerance for Drink Driving in Qatar. Actually, this is something I totally agree with, and has been ever since I read the Ibot blog: the writer, Shannon, was put in a wheelchair at the age of eight years old. Her two young friends fared worse: both lost their lives.

However, many expats do not respect the drink driving laws and I personally know two expat drivers who lost their jobs and residence here as a result. I know many more who drink drive on a regular basis, often assuring me: "I ken handle it," as they fall out of their chairs. Others will have one drink - acceptable in the UK, for sure, but not without risk here.

Obviously, if a death was involved in a drink driving accident, the penalty would be far worse than deportation.

2. Getting Drunk

Well, let's qualify this - it usually means getting drunk in a public place and making a nuisance of yourself. If you have a liqour permit, it's legal to buy alcohol here and drink it in your own home (after concealing it in your car on the way) and it is legal to drink in a bar. It is not legal to drink elsewhere. However, the majority of people who have been arrested for drinking have been those causing problems: fighting and generally being a nuisance.

Muslims who drink should be extra careful. The law seems to be ambiguous here: they can get alcohol licences but they are forbidden to drink by Shariah law, and can be punished with a caning.

See Qatar Alcohol for more information.

3. Looove...Outside Marriage

A number of people have asked us whether it is acceptable to live together outside marriage. The answer is no, it's not. This is a strict Wahabbi country and many people, albeit usually servants, have been arrested, imprisoned and deported for sex outside marriage.

4. Offending Islam

Now let's put this into context here. There are many discussions between Christians and Muslims (and others) here, and many Muslims value the opportunity to put their point of view across, even if you don't agree with them. However, some things are sacred - that includes Mohammed and the Quran.

5. Libel and Slander

You really don't want to annoy the wrong person here. Qataris value their privacy and honour - so watch what what you say about who you say when you are chatting away on online forums here, or you might just find yourself with on a one-way plane trip back home.

These are our top five ways to get deported - let us know if you think we have missed any...

Image of Drunk Driver by Tread

Also see: Qatar Dos and Don'ts | Qatar Culture

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Qatar Visitor Website down

You may have noticed that our website is down. As far as we can work out, this is something to do with the forum. Unfortunately, we have been able to contact our forum expert (why do these things always happen on the weekend?) Hopefully we will have the website back up sooner than later. We will then probably move the forum to a seperate site so this can't happen again!

Apologies to anyone who was looking for information on it - if you need some info leave a comment here and we will try to help you!

Update: The website is now up again.

Qatar Kissing Makes the News

It's some time ago since we reported the story of a married couple landing in trouble after a public kiss.

Things only got worse for the Arab couple, who are from Lebanon, when a Qatar court refused to accept their marriage.

These two were sensible enough to do their kissing outside Qatar.

Image by Patries 71.

A Problem of Faith

The sticky point for the court was the interfaith issue. While it is usually acceptable for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman, the opposite is not the case.

The assumption is that the offspring of a family will follow their father in religion. It is just not acceptable in Islam for the children of a Muslim to become a Christian.

Still, the judgement raised a stir in the community - if one marriage certificate is not accepted, can any truly be judged to be safe?

Spreading Story

Now the story has reached America, being reported in the Los Angeles Times blog.

According to the blog, the offending action of the man was not a kiss, but to place his hand on his wife's shoulder.

The police simply said that the couple was found in a compromising position.

The penalty? A year in jail. Although, fortunately enough for the couple, they had fled the country before the penalty had been passed.

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Vodafone is Here

Vodafone is here, and its website is worth visiting just to see the flash intro - butterflies swirling round the screen and an image of the world before the words: It's a Big World flash up.


The company is announcing its entry with a bang. In a brilliant marketing ploy, the company is concealing 500 pieces of a jigsaw around Villagio Shopping Mall tomorrow (Saturday).

Those finding the 500 pieces can take them to the Vodafone store where they get a goody bag and the opportunity to win one of 50 prize packs - including a Vodafone phone.

Then the winners of those will get to help construct a giant puzzle, and get the opportunity to win an all-expenses trip to absolutely anywhere in the world.

Given the publicity that the event is generating and will generate, that trip will be a lot cheaper than it would be buying sufficient advertising to get the same publicity!

Also see:

Qatar Telephones
Qatar Mobile Phones

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What's happening on the Qatar Web

We've often thought it strange that the Qatar Web, though small, does not really interconnect very well. As a result we decided to try and start a series of posts keeping up with what is happening - so here goes...

Qatar Living is still holding its third anniversary competition. They have one Ipod nano left to give away, so if you would like the chance to win one you can find the details here. (If you like competitions you might also want to enter the Qatar Visitor competition for a chance to win a free signed copy of Qatar.)



I Love Qatar, meanwhile, is spreading the news of a spetacular New Years Eve party to be held at the Sheraton Hotel, while Mr Q Blogs about a typical Eid for a Qatar family.

Other blogs are pretty quiet at the moment. Life on the Spot, normally very vocal (especially when they get arrested in supermarket!) has contented itself with some images of Al Wakra beach (and I thought it had all been dug up!). Marjorie in Qatar wishes us a Happy Eid and then heads off to Sri Lanka for a week. Mohana has made a decision to visit India despite fears about airports and terrorism - partly because she and her husband don't want terrorists to dictate their life.

Out of the Qatar blogospere the hot news is the Qatar- Bahrain bridge, which, according to the Dubai chronicle, will be completed by 2013 (don't hold your breaths!) The Islamic Museum is still generating news and comments - although the Tuque Souq is less than complimentary, calling it a "giant blocky monstrosity of modern architecture".

Business news from Startup Arabia reports that internet advertising in the Mena Area (that's the Middle East and North Africa) is set to double over the next year. That may seem like good news for websites in a time of recession, but is a far cry from Google's claim not so long ago that internet advertising in the region was set to increase by well over a thousand percent.

Hopefully more businesses will wake up and realise how much better value internet advertising is over print advertising - a factor which may actually drive internet advertising in a time of recession. However, last time we had a look at Google Adwords, the costs per click for Qatar had actually been reduced!

Finally, a website we hadn't noticed before but which has been featured in the new edition of Marhaba is Qatar Paintballing. You can get all the details of the sport from the website, or just head along to their location in Hyatt Plaza to take part in it.

That's all we could see on our search - do let us know if we have missed anything!

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Busy Qatar

At Souq Waqif at least, Qatar seems to be determined to avoid the usual criticism that Eid is not celebrated like it used to be - or that Christmas celebrations are better than Eid celebrations.


Like many other families, we have been taken advantage of a very pleasant winter weather to get down to the souq and enjoy all the shows and activities: these have included living statues, jugglers, dancers, caricature drawers, a tea pourer on a unicycle and comedians - all of which has been free.


Things look set to continue on 18th December, when Qatar gets ready to pull out all the stops to celebrate National Day. According to the Gulf Times, events planned include live music, parades and fireworks to equal those seen last month.

Also see: Qatar Holidays

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Ten Christmas Present Ideas for Qatar

I've had to work hard to get this list down to ten - I originally came up with 21 and then decided that would be better for a website article than for a quick blog post!

1. Books:

Choose one of the Qatar books from our book section. Have a friend interested in nature/history? Buy a copy of discovering Qatar. If you live abroad you can buy it through us - helping us to improve the site and buy more articles! (Often by the writers and editors of the books we sell!) If you want a more global view of Qatar you could also buy the coffee table book Qatar, edited by David Chaddock.

2. Lamp

Personally I like the old heavy brass lamps avaible from the junk and antique shops - one sits pride of place on my mother's hearth back home. Traditional coffee sets also make a good present, as does Arabic coffee with its faint cinemon taste.

3. Jewellery.

Qatar's gold souq has a fantastic range of very pure gold jewellery. We especially like Cartouche - a gold oblong which has your name inscribed on it. In Qatar the gold shops will inscribe your name in Arabic on one side and in English on the other.

4. Traditional clothes.

Glide across the desert sand with a black veil mysteriously covering your face, or stand proud in a thobe of pure white - at Souq Waqif and elsewhere you can buy all the traditional Arabic clothing, making for great photo opportunities.

5. Wood art.

Qatar wood art is simply suberb. By combining wood shavings of different shades and textures, the artist manages to come up with a picture that is full of colour - but uses no ink. At around QAR10,000 in the Gharaffa shop, though, it doesn't come cheap.

6. Calligraphy.

You don't have to be a Muslim to appreciate the beauty of some of the best pieces of calligraphy. In fact, as you can see in the Islamic Museum, calligraphy was even used by some early Christian painters.

7. Dates.

Dates are a traditional Arab gift - and are also full of goodness (and sugar!) You don't have to stick with plain dates either, as there are all sorts of varieties and spin offs available - our favourite are dates with almond and chocolate. You can find whole shops dedicated to dates in Qatar, so you won't go short of choice.

8. Arabic Perfume

You'll also find no shortage of perfume here. The Arabic perfume, which can finding lining the walls top to bottom in souq shops, is rather stronger than Western perfume.

9. Traditional Cloth

Traditional bedouin weaving still takes place in Qatar today, and the weaving can both be seen or be bought in Souq Waqif.



10. Water Pipe

Shisha smoking is popular in Qatar, and small or large sets of the pipes can be bought to take home. Just be aware of the health risks first!


Related posts:

Christmas in Qatar
Christmas Dinner
Presents from Japan

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Eid Mubarrak!!!

We celebrate the first day of Eid with an excellent article by Yousra Abdelaal. In Eid Frenzy, Yousra looks at the frenzied preparations that take place in Qatar prior to the festival, and joins in at the henna salon.

Meanwhile, a question we posed (not entirely seriously) in 2006 is still arousing comment.

What does a vegetarian Muslim sacrifice?

Zizi replied:

The vegetarian sacrifices anything special to him.

Not so, answers Shahd, who believes that while a Muslim vegetarian is not required to eat meat, he or she should still make the sacrifice.

Normally, the vegetarian can sacrifice a sheep, goat, or whatever it is he pleases and he can give out the meat as sadaqa (charity), but no, i don't think there is a vegetarian tradition in islam since muslims can't prevent themselves from anything that allah has granted!

I wasn't even sure that there were such a thing as Vegetarian muslims, but a quick internet search put me right.

The International Vegetarian Union spreads the news of a Muslim-vegetarian society, with an emphasis on Islamic compassion towards animals. the page carries a number of quotes from the Quran and Hadiths regarding animals. See Islamic Duty of Compassion towards Animals.

Meanwhile, Enlightenment Next carries on article on how Muslims are becoming vegetarians because of factory farms breaking Muslims laws on the treatments of animals.

Neither, unfortunately, answer our original question. So if you can enlighten us, leave a comment, or head over to the Qatar Living forum to argue the matter out!

Also see: Eid Ul Adha

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Qatar Visitor Competition

With Eid al Adha here and Christmas fast approaching, it seems the perfect time for a competition.

This time round we are offering a signed copy of Qatar to the winner of the competition. The book has been kindly donated by editor David Chaddock, who is also author of Qatar: A Business Traveller's Handbook.

The latest edition of the book features over 160 pages of beautifully written content by Qatar based writers such as Frances Gillespie, as well as over 200 photographs of the country, many of them specially comissioned.

To enter the competition all you have to do is sign up for our free newsletter (in our side bar!).

In addition to being entered in the competition you will receive a monthly newsletter with:

• The best of What's New on Qatar Visitor
• Updates on news affecting tourists and residents
• Other competitions and prizes we will be running

We will never sell your email to a third party, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The winner will be chosen by the end of December, and the prize delivered in January.

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