Qatar's foreign merchandise trade balance in April showed a surplus of QR4.3bn witnessing a decrease of about QR8.6bn, or 66.9 percent, compared to the corresponding moth last year (April 2019), official data show. The trade surplus, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, has decreased by nearly QR3.4bn, or 44 percent, compared to March 2020, according to data released by he Planning and Statistics Authority show. In April 2020, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR11.8bn, showing a decrease of 46.3 percent compared to April 2019, and decrease of 26.3 percent compared to March 2020. On other hand, the imports of goods in April 2020 amounted to around QR7.5bn, showing a decrease of 17.0 percent over April 2019. However, on a month-onmonth (M-o-M) basis the imports decrease by 10.1 percent. The year-on-year (April 2020 to April 2019) decrease in total exports was mainly due to lower exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane) reaching QR7.6bn approximately in April 2020, a decrease of 45 percent, Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (crude) reaching QR1.2bn nearly, decreased by 68.4 percent , and decrease in the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reaching QR0.5bn, decreased by 62 percent. In April 2020, South Korea was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR1.8bn, a share of 15.7 percent of total exports, followed by China with almost QR1.33bn and a share of 11.3 percent , India with about QR1.32bn, a share of 11.3 percent. During this month China was the leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports with about QR1.5bn, a share of 19.7 percent of the imports, followed by the US with QR1bn almost, a share of 13.6 percent , and the United Kingdom with QR0.7bn, a share of 9.3 percent.
