Qatar's economy grew 6.9 per cent year-on-year in inflation-adjusted terms in the first quarter, helped by a jump in the construction industry, its statistics authority said yesterday.

The world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas also saw its real GDP rising by 3pc in January-March, compared with the previous three months, the Qatar Statistics Authority said .

In March, it reported a GDP growth of 14.7pc year-on-year for October-December 2011 and revised it to 14.8pc in the following month. It also put the quarter-on-quarter expansion at 4.6pc in April.

Qatar expects its economic growth to slow to 4.5pc in 2013, the weakest rate in a decade, the state planning authority said earlier.

The weakening global growth outlook and the euro zone debt crisis pose a risk to the Opec member as they are affecting oil prices, it added.

Qatar saw GDP growth falling to 6.2pc in 2012 from a revised 14.1pc last year as the impact of decades of expansion in its gas output levels off.

Analysts in March forecast real GDP growth of 6.6pc for 2012.

Oil and gas output, which accounts for around 58pc of the economy, increased 4.6pc on an annual basis in constant prices in the first quarter, edging up 0.6pc quarter-on-quarter

Construction, where activity is picking up ahead of the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, saw output rising 6.1pc year-on-year.