Qatar’s foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR13.1bn in April showing a fall of about QR1.7bn or 11.3 percent compared to April 2018, and decline of nearly QR0.1bn or 0.4 percent compared to March 2019.
The Planning and Statistics Authority yesterday released preliminary figures of the value of exports of domestic goods, re-exports, and imports for April 2019.
In April 2019, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR22.1bn, showing a decrease of 7.8 percent compared to April 2018, and decreased by 2.8 percent compared to March 2019.
On the other hand, the imports of goods in April 2019 amounted to around QR9bn, showing a decrease of 2.3 percent over April 2018. However, on a month on month (M-o-M) basis the imports decrease by 6.1 percent.
The year on year (April 2019 to April 2018) decrease in total exports was mainly due to lower exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc.) reaching QR13.9bn approximately in April 2019, a decrease of 2.1 percent, Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (crude) reaching QR3.8bn nearly, decreased by 4.6 percent, and decrease in the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reaching QR1.3bn, decreased by 40.7 percent.
In April 2019, South Korea was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR4bn, a share of 18.1 percent of total exports, followed by Japan with almost QR3.4bn and a share of 15.6 percent, India with about QR2.7bn, a share of 12.1 percent.
In April 2019, United State of America was the leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports with about QR1.9bn, a share of 20.9 percent of the imports, followed by China with QR1bn almost, a share of 10.8 percent, and India with QR0.7bn, a share of 7.7 percent.
The Peninsula
28/05/2019
