Qatar Reports Trade Surplus

Despite the ongoing siege against Qatar, the country’s trade surplus witnessed a sharp jump in April 2018 year-on-year, mainly as a result of increase in exports with the significant rebound in energy prices, The Peninsula online reported. The foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR14.7 billion ($4.04 billion), up by QR4.9 billion, or 49.3%, compared to April 2017. When compared on monthly basis, the trade balance increased by nearly QR1.4 billion, or 10.7%, against the previous month, preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics show. In April 2018, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR24 billion, showing an increase of 27.3% compared to April 2017, and increased by 0.5% compared to March 2018. On other hand, imports of goods in April 2018 amounted to around QR9.2 billion, registering an increase of 3.1% over April 2017. However, on a month-on-month basis the imports decreased by 12.5%.