DOHA: Qatar’s trade surplus witnessed a sharp jump year-on-year in January 2018, reflecting upon the fact that Qatar has successfully defused the impact of the ongoing blockade.
The foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, in the first month of this year showed a surplus of QR16.4bn, registering a remarkable increase of about QR 5.6bn, or 52.2 percent, compared to the corresponding month last year (January 2017).
The significant increase in total value of exports was understandably due to rebound in the prices of petroleum and other hydrocarbons products.
When compared on monthly basis, the trade surplus in January 2018 surged by nearly QR1.5bn, or 9.8 percent, compared to December 2017, preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics showed.
In January 2018, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR25.9bn, showing an increase of 28.8percent compared to January 2017, and increase by 0.1 percent compared to December 2017.
The value of imports of goods in January 2018 amounted to QR9.6bn, showing an increase of 2 percent over January 2017. However, on a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis the imports decreased by 13 percent.
The year-on-year increase in total exports was mainly due to higher exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, and others) reaching QR16.9bn approximately in January 2018, an increase of 28.3 percent, Petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals (crude) reaching about QR4.2bn, up 76.7percent, and increase in the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reaching QR1.7bn, increased by 17.3 percent.
In January 2018, South Korea was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR4.9bn, a share of 19.4 percent of total exports.
QNB’s brand value rises nearly 20% year-on-year to $6.03 billion in 2020
QNB’s brand value has risen nearly 20% year-on-year to $6.03bn in 2020, putting it in a strong position to continue...