The merchandise trade balance of the State of Qatar jumped last December by 10 percent, registering a surplus of 28.2 billion riyals ($7.74 billion), up by 2.6 billion riyals on an annual basis, and about two billion riyals, or 7.6 percent on a monthly basis.
The data of the Qatar Planning and Statistics Authority revealed that the value of total Qatari exports, which includes exports of local origin and re-exports, increased during December by 7.6 percent to about 38.3 billion riyals compared to the same month of 2021, and 3.1 percent compared to last November. The value of monthly commodity imports exceeded 10 billion riyals, an annual increase of 1.4 percent, while it decreased by 7.7 percent compared to November 2022.
China topped the destination countries for the exports of the State of Qatar, with about 8.4 billion riyals, or 21.9 percent, followed by India with 4.2 billion riyals, or the equivalent of 11 percent, then South Korea with about 3.9 billion riyals, or 10.2 percent. In terms of imports, the United States ranked first in the countries of origin with respect to the imports of the State of Qatar with two billion riyals, at a rate of 19.7 percent of the total value of merchandise imports, then China with 1.4 billion riyals, at a rate of 14.3 percent, followed by Italy with 900 million riyals, or 9 percent.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
