Qatar registers QR9.9bn trade surplus in March

Qatar has registered a trade surplus of QR9.9bn in March, which represents a year-on-year growth of nearly 71%, data released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics show.

In March, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR19.7bn, showing an increase of 18.4% compared to March 2016, and increased by 0.1% compared to February 2017, MDPS said. On the other hand, the imports of goods in March amounted to around QR9.8bn, which indicates a drop of 9.6% compared with March last year. However, on a month on month (M-o-M) basis, the imports have increased by 20%. In March this year, the foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR9.9bn, MDPS said. This represents an increase of nearly QR4.1bn (70.7%) compared with March 2016, but a decrease of nearly QR1.6bn or 14% compared to February this year. The year on year (March 2017 to March 2016) increase in total exports, MDPS said was “mainly due to higher exports” of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane), which reached QR11.4bn in March 2017, which represents an increase of 18.1% on the same period last year.Increase was also seen in the exports of “petroleum oils” and oils from bituminous minerals (crude), which reached nearly QR3.3bn in March, up 42.8% on the same period last year.In the segment of petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals (not crude), 119% increase was registered during the period to reach QR1.7bn. In March this year, Japan topped the “countries of destination of Qatar’s exports” with value close to QR3.7bn and a share of 18.7% of total exports followed by South Korea with almost QR2.8bn (14.3%) and India with QR2.6bn (13.2%).During March this year, motor cars and other passenger vehicles topped the list of imported commodities, with QR0.7bn, which however, showed a reduction of 9.2% compared to the same period in 2016. In second place was aircraft and helicopters parts with QR0.27bn, which dropped by 32.6%, and in third place was electrical apparatus with QR0.26bn, which indicates a drop of 59.5%. In March this year, the United State of America was the “leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports” with about QR1.2bn and a share of 12.2% of the imports, followed by Germany with QR0.91bn (9.3%), and United Arab Emirates with QR0.9bn (9.2%).