Mubasher: Qatar’s trade surplus with Japan surged 35% year-on-year in 2018, according to the Japanese Ministry of Finance's (MoF) monthly bulletin released on Wednesday.
Trade surplus between the two countries amounted to JPY 1.48 trillion ($13.5 billion) in 2018, against JPY 1.09 trillion ($9.9 billion) in the prior year.
The annual rise in trade balance surplus was supported by the growth in the GCC nation’s exports to Japan by 33.1% to JPY 1.64 trillion ($14.9 billion), compared to JPY 1.23 trillion ($11.2 billion) in 2017.
The Persian Gulf nation’s imports from Japan saw a 17.6% annual growth to JPY 156.94 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2018, from JPY 133.46 billion ($1.2 billion).
In December, the world's richest country per capita registered a trade surplus with Japan worth JPY 152.6 billion ($1.39 billion), against JPY 109.3 billion ($998.96 million) in the same month of 2017.
Qatar’s trade surplus with Japan was encouraged by the 37.6% growth of the GCC nation’s exports which rose to JPY 166.8 billion ($1.5 billion) in December, while Qatar’s imports from the Asian country grew 19.5% to JPY 14.24 billion ($130.2 million).
