DUBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Qatar will put together a state budget for 2016 that avoids a big deficit despite the blow to revenues from low oil and gas prices, the country's emir said on Tuesday in a speech that suggested spending would become more cautious.

"It will take the fall in oil prices into consideration, so as to avoid a big budget deficit that may cause harm," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said in a speech to the government's Advisory Council, according to an official statement.

Sheikh Tamim did not give specific figures for this year's projected budget balance or next year's plan, but his speech suggested Qatar was moving away from the double-digit spending increases that characterised the past decade.

As the world's top liquefied natural gas exporter, Qatar's finances are among the strongest in the Gulf, but its earnings have plunged this year; exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons shrank 40 percent from a year earlier to 13.18 billion riyals ($3.6 billion) in September.

Sheikh Tamim said the government would continue to spend on building infrastructure, social welfare projects and diversifying the economy.

But he said Qatar would in future rely more on the private sector and give it more room to operate without competition from state firms. A comprehensive review of all state-owned companies has been carried out, he said.

"After submitting this review to the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment, I have directed that subsidies for a number of these companies be ceased, and some to be privatised," Sheikh Tamim said without naming the firms.

He said government policy "must also address the unjustified rise in real estate prices", but did not elaborate on how this would be done.

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia) ((andrew.torchia@thomsonreuters.com; +9715 6681 7277; Reuters Messaging: andrew.torchia.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: QATAR ECONOMY/EMIR