Advantage - Qatar. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer play aquatic tennis, Doha's booming skyline in the background (Photo: AP)
Qatar has replaced Luxembourg as the world’s richest nation, recording wealth that is almost twice that of the US, new estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show.
The IMF's Chart of the Day shows Qatar's gross domestic product per capita at US$81,466 in 2010, pushing Luxembourg off the top spot.
The figure may reach $111,963 in 2016, according to the global body's estimates. Data for the United States in 2010 estimates GDP per capital at $46,860.
Qatar, which will host the football World Cup in 2022, forecasts economic growth of about 16 per cent in 2011 and expects a budget surplus of $6.1 billion this fiscal year.
The Gulf country, home to just 848,000, is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and this year reached its target of 77 million tons of annual production.
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