Mubasher: Qatar’s trade balance surplus surged 52% year-on-year in January 2018, according to a report released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics on Tuesday.
Trade surplus reached QAR 16.4 billion in the first month of the year, compared to the prior-year period.
Total exports of the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) hiked 28.8% year-on-year to QAR 25.9 billion, the report showed.
The value of petroleum gas and other hydrocarbon exports grew 28.3% to QAR 16.9 billion, while exports of oil and minerals oils levelled up 76.7% to QAR 4.2 billion in the previous month.
South Korea topped the list of Qatar’s export destinations with QAR 4.9 billion, acquiring 19.4% of the nation's total exports, followed by Japan which made up 17.8% with QAR 4.5 billion, and China with QAR 3.3 billion.
Meanwhile, imports of the world's richest country per capita rose 2% year-on-year to QAR 9.6 billion in January.
China accounted for QAR 1.4 billion of Qatar’s imports, followed by the UK and India, which acquired around QAR 1.4 billion and QAR 0.6 billion, respectively.
