Qatar's crude exports witnessed a robust 21% year-on-year expansion as it reported trade surplus of QR14.3bn in December 2019, according to the country's Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA).
The trade surplus, however, saw a 10% decline year-on-year, even as it showed a 14% growth on a monthly basis, the PSA report said.
The bulk of the exports continued to go towards Asia, which constituted more than 72% of the total. In absolute terms, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Singapore were among the largest export markets of Qatar; while imports mainly came from the US, China, Germany, the UK and Italy during the period under review.
In December 2019, total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to QR23.59bn, which registered 7.2% decline year-on-year but showed a 6.4% growth month-on-month.
The exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons fell 6.7% year-on-year to QR14.95bn, non-crude by 17.6% to QR1.36bn and other commodities by 13.9% to QR2.38bn; whereas those of crude soared 20.9% to QR4.09bn at the end of December 2019.
On a monthly basis, the exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons shot up 6.3%, non-crude by 28.1% and other commodities by 9%; while those of crude were down 3.8%.
Petroleum gases constituted 66% of the exports of domestic products compared to 68% a year ago period, crude 18% (14%), non-crude 6% (7%) and other commodities 10% (11%).
In December last year, Qatar's shipments to Japan amounted to QR4.99bn, accounting for 21% of the total exports; China QR3.47bn (14.7%); South Korea QR3.36bn (14.2%); India QR3.21bn (13.6%); and Singapore QR2.07bn (8.8%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's exports to South Korea and China plummeted 32.53% and 5.19%; while those to Singapore zoomed 23.95%, Japan 14.19% and India 10.31%. On a monthly basis, Doha's exports to India surged 43.95%, Singapore 15%, Japan 5.72%, China 4.2% and South Korea 4.02%.
The country's re-exports amounted to QR0.82bn in December 2019, which showed a shrinkage of 19.8% on a yearly basis but witnessed a 32.8% surge on a monthly basis.
Qatar's total imports (valued at cost insurance and freight) amounted to QR9.29bn, which showed 2.7% and 4% declines year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in December 2019.
In December last year, imports from the US stood at QR2.04bn, a share of 22% of the total, followed by China QR1.16bn (12.5%), Germany QR0.52bn (5.6%), the UK QR0.47bn (5.1%) and Italy QR0.46bn (4.9%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's imports from the US shot up 21.45%, Italy 14.5% and China 3.29%; while those from the UK and German declined 41.75% and 21.79% respectively. On a monthly basis, the country's imports from Italy grew 22.13%, while those from the UK plummeted 50.52%, Germany 343.97%, the US by 2.53% and China 0.85%.
In December 2019, imports of electrical apparatus for line telephony and telephone amounted to QR0.34bn, motor cars and other vehicles QR0.32bn, parts of aircraft amounted to QR0.32bn and other commodities QR8.31bn.