Qatari Rial (QAR)

About the Qatari Rial

The Qatari Rial (QAR) is the official currency of Qatar, issued by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) and written ر.ق., though QCB's own English-language materials commonly abbreviate it QR. The rial subdivides into 100 dirhams. Since July 2001 it has been fixed at QR 3.64 per US dollar, a hard peg that QCB describes as the nominal anchor of its monetary policy, succeeding an earlier peg to the IMF's Special Drawing Right that had run since 1975.

QCB itself trades dollars with commercial banks at QR 3.64, though banks add a margin of about 0.24 per cent when dealing with the public. No official fluctuation band is published for the dollar peg, unlike the SDR-linked regime it replaced, which had carried bands of first ±2.25 and then ±7.25 per cent.

The rial descends from the Qatar-Dubai Riyal, launched on 18 September 1966 after Qatar and Dubai formed a joint currency board to replace the Gulf Rupee. When Dubai joined the United Arab Emirates in 1971, Qatar dissolved the board; Law No. 7 of 1973 established the Qatar Monetary Agency, which issued the Qatari Rial from 19 May 1973 at the same gold parity as its predecessor. The Qatar Central Bank, formed in August 1993, inherited the Agency's exchange-rate strategy and continues to issue the currency today.

Qatar Central Bank's published economic indicators put real GDP growth at 2.0 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2025, with a 4.5 per cent expansion in the non-hydrocarbon economy offsetting a 2.4 per cent contraction in the hydrocarbon sector; annual consumer-price inflation stood at 2.21 per cent in June 2026. Because the rial has been pegged to the US dollar since 2001, its value against other major currencies, such as the euro or pound sterling, moves in line with the dollar's own fluctuations rather than independently.

Qatar Central Bank has issued five main banknote series since 1973; the Fifth Issue, launched in 2020, redesigned every note and added a new 200-riyal denomination alongside the existing 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500-riyal notes. Motifs include the Abu Al Qubaib Mosque on the 100-riyal note, Doha landmarks such as Lusail Stadium and the Torch Tower on the 10-riyal note, and the Ras Laffan liquefied-natural-gas terminal on the 500-riyal note. Qatar Central Bank's currency gallery does not list current circulating coin denominations in English, only historical and commemorative gold and silver coin issues.