Qatar's trade surplus saw a 69.5% year-on-year growth in trade surplus to QR22.41bn this February as the exports of crude and non-crude more than doubled and there was a robust double-digit expansion in the shipments of petroleum gases, according to the official statistics.
The rebound in the country's merchandise trade surplus has been enabled by robust jump in shipments to Asian countries, which constituted more than 60% of Qatar's exports during the period in review, said the figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority.
Nevertheless, Qatar's trade surplus showed a 13.5% month-on-month decline in February 2022 as exports fell faster than imports.
The country's total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) were QR31.88bn, showing a stupendous 54.6% surge year-on-year but shrank 10.3% compared to January 2022.
In February 2022, Qatar's shipments to China amounted to QR7.06bn or 22.2% of the total exports of the country, followed by Japan QR5.3bn (16.6%), South Korea QR3.72bn (11.7%), India QR3.26bn (10.2%) and the UK QR1.84bn (5.8%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's exports to the UK grew almost 77-fold, those to China more than doubled; and those to Japan and South Korea expanded 46.81% and 1.64% respectively; whereas those to India declined 7.12% in the review period.
On a monthly basis, Qatar's exports to India, South Korea and the UK were seen declining 22.01%, 10.58% and 10.24% respectively; while those to Japan and China grew 32.5% and 2.77% respectively in February 2022.
The exports of non-crude more than doubled (127.4%) to QR3bn, crude also more than doubled (120.3%) to QR5.45bn, petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons shot up 41.7% to QR18.94bn and other commodities by 37.8% to QR3.6bn.
On a monthly basis, the exports of other commodities tanked 16.2%, petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (13.9%) and crude (1.7%); whereas those of non-crude grew 3.9% in January 2022.
Petroleum gases constituted 61.12% of the exports of domestic products in February 2022 compared to 67.63% a year ago period; followed by crude 17.59% (12.54%), non-crude 9.68% (6.68%) and other commodities 11.62% (13.2%).
Qatar's total imports (valued at cost insurance and freight) amounted to QR9.47bn, which zoomed 28.1% year-on-year but declined 1.9% month-on-month in February 2022.
The country's imports from China stood at QR1.68bn, which accounted for 17.7% of the total imports; followed by the US at QR0.94bn (9.9%), Italy QR0.69bn (7.3%), India QR0.66bn (7%) and Oman QR0.57bn (6%).
On a yearly basis, Qatar's imports from Oman more than tripled, those from Italy shot up 66.99%, India by 46.44%, China 37.7% and the US 13.85% in February 2022.
On a monthly basis, the country's imports from China decreased 27.9%, the US by 12.76% and India by 6.52%; while those from Oman almost tripled and those from Italy grew 62.65% in the review period.
In February 2022, the group of "Motorcars and other motor vehicles for the transport of people was at the top of the imported group of commodities with QR0.5bn, showing a yearly increase of 47.9%.
In the second place was "Turbojets, Turbo propellers and other gas turbines; parts thereof with QR0.4bn, showing a 50.2% expansion on a yearly basis and part of aircraft, spacecraft with QR0.2bn, registering 6.5% year-on-year growth in the review period.
Related Story