Faster expansion in exports to Japan, South Korea and China helped Qatar report trade surplus of QR14.74bn in April 2018, according to official estimates.
The country's trade surplus registered 49.3% and 10.7% increase on yearly and monthly basis respectively, figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics show.
In absolute terms, Japan, South Korea, China, India and Singapore were among the largest export markets of Qatar; while imports mainly came from China, the US, India, Japan and Germany this April.
In April 2018, total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to QR23.96bn, showing an increase of 27.3% compared to April 2017, and 0.5% against March 2018.
The exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (liquefied natural gas, condensates, propane and butane) increased 22.9% year-on-year to QR14.11bn, crude by 41.5% to QR3.94bn, non-crude by 83.7% to QR2.12bn and other commodities by 10.7% to QR2.89bn.
On a monthly basis, the country's shipments of petroleum gases declined 4.8%, while those of crude grew 3.7%; non-crude by 31.8% and other commodities by 4.9%.
In April this year, Japan was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with QR4.7bn, a share of 19.6% of total exports, followed by South Korea, QR4.09bn (17.1%), China, QR2.56bn (10.7%), India, QR2.17bn (9%) and Singapore QR1.76bn (7.3%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's exports to South Korea soared 69.71%, Japan 67.86%, China 35.45% and Singapore 16.23%; whereas those to India fell 4.41%. On a monthly basis, exports to Japan grew 18.39% and China 0.39%; while those to India shrank 22.22%, Singapore 12% and South Korea 7.47%.
The country's re-exports amounted to QR0.89bn in April 2018, which represented 15.2% and 4% growth on yearly and monthly basis respectively
Qatar's total imports (valued at cost insurance and freight) amounted to QR9.21bn, which was up 3.1% year-on-year but plunged 12.5% on a monthly basis.
In April 2018, China and the US were the leading countries of origin of Qatar’s imports worth about QR1bn, a share of 11% each of the total, followed by India QR0.8bn (8.7%), Japan QR0.74bn (8.1%) and Germany QR0.55bn (6%).
On a yearly basis, Doha's imports from Japan shot up 50.2% and India by 22.58%; whereas those from the US plunged 52.18%, China by 32.68% and Germany by 3.68%. On a monthly basis, imports from the US and China were down 9.38% and 2.46% respectively; while those from India more than doubled, those from Germany increased by 33.17% and Japan by 14.33%.
During April 2018, motor cars and other passenger vehicles were at the top of the imported group of commodities, with a value of QR0.59bn, showing a year-on-year decrease of 4.9%; followed by parts of aircraft QR0.25bn (showing an increase of 19%) and electrical apparatus for line telephony QR0.22bn (decline of 35.5%).