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FinObservatory

External balance sheets

Qatar

In 2024, Qatar had a net international investment position of 280.5% of GDP, owning 433.6% abroad and owing 153.1%. Across the four instrument legs it reports in 2024, 17.7% is equity-like (direct investment and portfolio equity) and the remainder is portfolio debt and other investment.

The balance sheet through time

YearNet positionAssetsLiabilitiesReservesCurrent accountCrisis
197044.1%176.6%132.5%2.1%-7.5%
197585.2%116.2%31.0%3.9%40.6%
1980337.8%350.8%12.9%5.2%125.5%
1985998.5%1010.2%11.7%8.4%73.2%
19901106.6%1128.2%21.6%10.1%-10.6%
19951118.9%1228.7%109.8%10.8%-27.6%
2000462.8%555.6%92.8%6.4%9.2%
2005203.8%262.9%59.1%10.2%16.8%
201072.0%217.8%145.8%25.6%20.0%
2015189.9%317.1%127.2%22.6%8.5%
2020275.5%501.2%225.7%26.0%-2.1%
2024280.5%433.6%153.1%20.3%17.2%

Source: External Wealth of Nations (Lane & Milesi-Ferretti), 1970-2024 All figures as a share of GDP. Every fifth year shown, plus the first and last. Crisis column is the FinObservatory atlas, deduplicated across its five chronologies. Methodology

What it owes, and in what form

The composition of external liabilities. Direct investment and portfolio equity are equity-like: their value falls when the country does badly, so the foreign investor shares the loss. Portfolio debt and other investment (mostly cross-border bank lending) are fixed claims that do not.

YearDirect investmentPortfolio equityPortfolio debtOther investment
1995first7.1%0.0%0.0%92.9%
2024latest12.7%5.0%19.4%62.9%

Source: External Wealth of Nations (Lane & Milesi-Ferretti), 1970-2024 Each leg as a share of the four legs, which sum to 100 percent. EWN's total-liabilities aggregate also carries a financial-derivatives leg, left out here on both sides of the ratio, so these shares describe a smaller stock than reported total liabilities wherever that derivative leg is non-zero. First and latest year with a complete instrument split (30 years available). Methodology

Reading this page

The crisis atlas records no crisis for Qatar since 1970. That is what the record says. It is not a statement that none occurred, and it is certainly not a statement that none will.

EWN is a reconstruction. Where a country never reported a position, the authors estimate it, and the file carries no flag separating a reported cell from an estimated one, so this page cannot mark them either.

Methodology