Doha – Mubasher: Qatar’s commodity trade surplus surged 105% year-on-year to reach QAR 9.8 billion ($2.69 billion) in April 2017, according to a statement by Qatar’s Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics.
Month-on-month, Qatar’s trade balance surplus shed 0.3%, the statement added.
Trade balance represents the difference between the country’s total exports and imports.
The ministry’s report also showed a year-on-year increase of 25.1% in Qatar’s exports reaching QAR 18.8 billion last month, but was down 4.5% on a monthly basis.
On the other hand, imports declined 12.5% to QAR 8.9 billion in April 2017 from the year-ago period, and recorded an 8.8% drop compared to March 2017.
Exports of petroleum gases and other hydrocarbons, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and condensates, increased 33.2% to QAR 11.5 billion.
Last month, Japan led Qatar’s exports destinations with 14.9% or QAR 2.8 billion, followed by South Korea with 12.8% and an export value of QAR 2.4 billion, while India came in third with 12.1% and QAR 2.3 billion.
In March, Qatar’s commodity trade surplus rose 70.7% year-on-year, logging a surplus of QAR 9.9 billion.
