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Qatar leads rating of worldâ€™s richest countries

20 June 2011 13:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Qatar became the wealthiest nation on earth in 2010 after it steadily pushed up its way on the global rich list, aided by its massive gas wealth, Peninsula On-line reported.

The small European state of Luxembourg was the second richest while Kuwait and the UAE followed Qatar as the wealthiest countries in the Arab region, a website has reported.

The three Arab countries were the only states from the region to be ranked among the 20 richest countries in the world according to a 2010 list by Global Finance, a leading US business magazine, which has released the list recently.

Surprisingly, Bahrain was ahead of Saudi Arabia in the list although it does not export oil and Saudi controls more than a fifth of the worldâ€™s recoverable oil resources. Although it sits atop the worldâ€™s third largest oil deposits of around 115 billion barrels, conflict-battered Iraq lagged behind most Arab countries and was ranked 124 in the rich list after its economy was wrecked by decades of wars.

Global Finance said it covered 182 countries in its wealth classification, which is based on comparing the living standards of the overall population of one country by using gross domestic product (GDP) per capita based on party or purchasing power balance internationally. It said the method uses indicators of the relative cost of living, inflation, and exchange rate of a country.

â€œThe richest country is occupied by Qatar a GDP per capita of $90,149 in 2010. The poorest country is Congo, with a per capita of only $342.â€

List of countries:

1. Qatar
2. Luxemburg
3. Norway
4. Singapore
5. Brunei
6. US
7. Hong Kong
8. Switzerland
9. Holland
10. Australia
11. Austria
12. Canada
13. Ireland
14. Kuwait
15. Iceland
16. Sweden
17. Denmark
18. United Arab Emirates
19. Belgium
20. Great Britain