Efforts for boosting bilateral trade and economic cooperation between Qatar and the US have yielded positive results. The Qatar-US trade balance (from the exchange of goods) witnessed an exceptional growth in October 2018.
The US trade surplus with Qatar in the month (October) jumped to QR977m ($268.3m) which is nearly fourteen-fold higher than QR70.2m ($19.3m) recorded in the corresponding month last year, latest official data show.
The combined value of the US trade surplus with Qatar for the current year (until October 2018) reached QR8.52bn ($2.34bn), which is higher than the trade surplus of the whole year in 2017.
With the recent data released by the US Census Bureau for the month of October 2018, the US trade surplus against Qatar for the first 10 months of this year has surpassed the last year’s QR6.99bn ($1.92bn, for the full year), showing a growth of about 22 percent.
The trade surplus, as well as the year-on-year growth, both expected to register a record growth once the figures for the November and December are released.
The total value of goods exchanged between the two countries in October stood at QR1.93bn ($532.3m) with US exports to Qatar at QR1.45bn ($400.3m), and imports from Qatar at QR480.67m ($132m).
Qatar-US bilateral trade in 2018 until October witnessed remarkable achievement registering sharp and steady growth. Within the first 10 months of this year, both the countries have traded goods worth more than the value of goods they exchanged for the whole year in 2017.
The combined value of bilateral trade (in goods) between the US and Qatar for the first 10 months of 2018 stood at QR18.48bn ($5.07bn), which has already surpassed QR15.73bn ($4.32bn) for the full year in 2017.
According to data released by the Qatar’s Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, in October 2018, the US was the leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports accounting for 16.4 percent of Qatar’s total imports, followed by China with QR1.2bn almost, a share of 12.8 percent, and UK with QR1.1bn, a share of 11.2 percent.
The Peninsula
28/12/2018
