A robust double-digit expansion in shipments to Asian countries helped Qatar's trade surplus grow more than 28% year-on-year to QR16.19bn in November 2018, according to official estimates.
The country's trade surplus however registered a 14.8% decline on a monthly basis, said the figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics.
In absolute terms, Japan, South Korea, India, China and Singapore were among the largest export markets of Qatar; while imports mainly came from the US, China, Germany, Turkey and the UK in the period under review.
In November, total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to QR25.7bn, showing an increase of 19.1% compared to November 2017; but saw a 10.7% decline against October 2018.
The exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons soared 25.3% year-on-year to QR15.43bn and crude by 18.3% to QR4.37bn; while those of non-crude declined 12.3% to QR2.01bn and other commodities by 0.3% to QR2.68bn.
On a monthly basis, the country's shipments of non-crude shrank 17.6%, petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons 13.3%, other commodities by 10.9% and crude 4.1%.
Petroleum gases constituted 63.01% of the exports of domestic products compared to 58.69% a year ago period, crude 17.84% (17.63%), non-crude 8.21% (10.91%) and other commodities 10.94% (12.82%).
In November this year, Qatar's shipments to Japan stood at QR4.64bn, thus accounting for 18.1% of the total exports, South Korea QR4.56bn (17.7%), India QR2.98bn (11.6%), China QR2.75bn (10.7%) and Singapore QR2.13bn (8.3%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's exports to Japan registered 32.19% growth, Singapore 15.76%, China 15.06%, India 10.78% and South Korea 9.62%; whereas on a monthly basis, those to China witnessed a 25.07% plunge, India 20.32%, Singapore 10.88%, South Korea 6.94% and Japan 0.43%.
The country's re-exports amounted to QR1.21bn in November, which more than double on a yearly basis and saw a 24.4% rise on a monthly basis.
Qatar's total imports (valued at cost insurance and freight) amounted to QR9.51bn, which showed a 6.4% growth on a yearly basis but was down 2.8% month-on-month.
In November, the US was the leading country of origin of Qatar's imports worth QR1.91bn - a share of 20.1% of the total, China QR1.23bn (12.9%), Germany QR0.67bn (7%), Turkey QR0.51bn (5.4%) and the UK QR0.48bn (5%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's imports from Turkey showed 86.23% accretion, the US 56.56%, Germany 39.87% and the UK 25.46%; while those from China tread a flat path. On a monthly basis, shipments from the UK plummeted 56.47%, Germany 2.62% and China 1.6%; while those from Turkey and the US grew 59.13% and 18.63% respectively.
During November, motor cars and other passenger vehicles were at the top of the imported group of commodities, with a value of QR0.38bn, which showed a year-on-year decrease of 20.9% and turbojets imports fell 37.1% to QR0.25bn; whereas parts of aircraft imports soared 37.1% to QR0.25bn and other commodities by 10% to QR8.6bn.