Qatar's $200 Billion Dash to World Cup Hits a Construction Cliff

Qatar is experiencing economic whiplash as it winds down $200 billion of infrastructure works to prepare for the 2022 soccer World Cup.

Construction shrank 1.2% from a year earlier in the first three months of 2019, contracting for the first time since the data series began, according to Qatar’s Planning and Statistics Authority. Before the decline, it grew at an annual average of 18% a quarter since the end of 2012.