Qatar Trade Surplus Jumps

Qatar’s trade balance (a surplus) for July 2017 reached QR11.9 billion ($3.23 billion), witnessing a sharp increase of 78.1% (year-on-year), or about QR5.2 billion, compared to the corresponding month last year. The jump in the trade surplus was attributed to higher value of exports in July against a year ago, Arabian Business reported. However, when compared on month-on-month basis, the trade surplus has decreased by 4.8%, or by QR600 million, compared to June 2017, data released by the Qatar Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics show. The ministry released the preliminary value of exports of domestic goods, re-exports, and imports for the month of July. It said, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) in July amounted to about QR18.1 billion, showing a year-on-year increase of 11.4% compared to July 2016, and decrease by 1.2% compared to June 2017.  On the other hand, the imports of goods in July amounted to QR6.2 billion, showing a decrease of 35% over July 2016. However, on a month on month basis the imports increased by 6.3%.