Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2013 -- BMI View: We project Qatar consumer electronics spending will grow by about 9% in US dollar terms in 2013 with leading indicator data being supportive of our positive outlook. The August 2012 YouGov/ Bayt.com consumer confidence index ranked Qataris as the third most optimistic consumers in the Middle East and North Africa region on the question of their economic prospects. An evolving retail landscape will help to stimulate sales, and new technologies, and factors such as increased competition in the mobile communications sector and the roll-out of high-spend broadband services, will also act as drivers Meanwhile, an expected influx of visitors in the run-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup (3mn tourists arrived when South Africa hosted the event in 2010) should boost spending.

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Headline Expenditure Projections

- Computer Hardware Sales: US$248mn in 2012 to US$260mn in 2013, +5% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged but Windows 8 tablets and ultrabooks should provide growth areas.
- AV Sales: US$336mn in 2012 to US$368mn in 2013, +10% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged, with flat-screen TV sets the main growth driver.
- Handset Sales: US$103mn in 2012 to US$119mn in 2013, +16% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms unchanged, with operator promotions and new releases expected to result in continued smartphone demand growth.

Risk/Reward Rating: Qatar's score was 56.4 out of 100.0, which despite being slightly down on the previous quarter, gave it an unchanged 4th place in our latest MEA CE RRR table. BMI expects Qatar to remain an important regional market due to the high economic growth rate that is forecast, and which will buoy consumer confidence.

Key Trends & Developments

- Qatar's promising 3G market will also be a core battleground for mobile operators and handset vendors alike, and is just starting to show signs of impressive growth. BMI projects that 3G models will account for above 80% of handset sales by 2017. Our new 3G growth forecast is that by the end of 2017 about 46% of Qatari mobile subscribers will use some form of 3G service.
- We forecast private consumption growing 13% y-o-y and 10% y-o-y in 2012 and 2013 respectively. One driver of spending on AV devices will be the roll-out of faster broadband services such as Qtel's fibre-tothe- home (FTTH) service, which should drive spending on facilitating devices such as cameras, monitors, portable computers and digital TV sets. Sales of LCD and plasma screen sets have increased as prices have fallen substantially over the last few years, with the price of a 32 inch LCD TV now below US$850.

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