IN MADRID yesterday at a conference on the prospects for business, a speaker forecasts that Spain's economy will shrink in 2009 by more than any other economy in the EU except one. Only Britain's economy will contract faster.

Most attention these days focuses on the gloomy side of the economic outlook—how big countries' recessions will be. But what about the other end of the spectrum: which will be the star growers of 2009?

The champion, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's forecasts reported in "The world in figures" pages, will be Qatar, whose gas-fired economy is forecast to grow by 13.4%. Qatar will be a champion in other ways too: its population will grow by more than 14%, to 1.8m, thanks to the world's highest rate of immigration. Many are lured to one of the richest countries in the world, with an income per head of close to $65,000.

Even on this sunny side of the economic forecast, however, there are clouds. Qatar's is the only economy predicted to reach double-digit growth in the coming year, compared with four countries on the equivalent list in The World in 2008, The World in 2007 and The World in 2006. Angola, the champion in last year's edition, was forecast to achieve a growth rate of 21.1%.