Qatar’s trade balance, which represents the difference between the country’s total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR9.8bn in April, an increase of about QR 5bn or 105 percent compared to April 2016. The trade balance, however, decreased by nearly QR0.03bn or 0.3 percent on Month-on-Month.
Qatar’s total exports of goods, including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports, reached QR18.8bn in April, up 25.1 percent from a year ago. On Month-on-Month basis, the export value is down by 4.5 percent, data released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) noted yesterday.
The Year-on-Year increase in total exports was mainly due to higher exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc.) reaching QR11.5bn approximately in April 2017, an increase of 33.2 percent, while increase was shown in Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (crude) (QR2.8bn), and in the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reaching QR1.2bn, up 75.7 percent.In April, Japan was at the top destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR 2.8bn or a share of 14.9 percent of total exports.