Doha: Qatar’s foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and total imports, has shown a surplus of QR6.4bn in September.
According to the Planning and Statistics Authority report released yesterday, in September 2020, the total exports of goods ( including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to around QR13.4bn, showing a decrease of 33.7 percent compared to September 2019, and decrease of 4.4 percent compared to August 2020.
The imports of goods in September 2020 amounted to around QR7bn, showing a decrease of 6.4 percent over September 2019. However, on a month on month (M-o-M) basis the imports decreased by 1.9 percent compared to August 2020.
The year on year (September 2020 to September 2019) decrease in total exports was mainly due to lower exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons reaching QR8.2bn approximately in September 2020, a decrease of 33.5 percent, Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (crude) reaching QR1.9bn nearly, a fall of 42 percent, and decrease in the Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals reaching 0.8bn, decreased by 54.7 percent.
In September, India was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s exports with close to QR2.4bn, a share of 18 percent of total exports, followed by China with almost QR2.1bn and a share of 15.4 percent, Japan with about QR1.7bn, a share of 12.9 percent.
In September, China was the leading country of origin of Qatar’s imports with about QR1.6bn, a share of 22.3 percent of the imports, followed by US with QR0.7bn.
