Qatar’s economy grows 2.5% in first quarter

DUBAI (Reuters) – Qatar’s economy grew 2.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier, although the growth fell slightly from the previous quarter, official estimates showed on Tuesday.

Qatar’s real gross domestic product (GDP), which is adjusted for inflation, shrank 0.3% in the first quarter from the fourth quarter to 166.26 billion riyals ($45.68 billion), the Planning and Statistics Authority said.

Mining and quarrying real gross value added (GVA) fell 1.7% in the first quarter from a year prior but grew 0.9% from the fourth quarter. Non-mining and quarrying real GVA grew 5.2% year-on-year in the first quarter and fell 0.9% compared to the previous quarter.

($1=3.6400 Qatar riyals)

(Reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)