The recent data showing Qatar’s trade surplus witnessing a sharp increase in the first month of this year emphasizes the fact that the country has successfully negated the evil mechanisms of the unjust blockade.
The foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, in January showed a surplus of QR16.4bn, registering an increase of about QR 5.6bn, or 52.2 percent, compared to the corresponding month in 2017. When compared on monthly basis, the trade surplus in January 2018 surged by nearly QR1.5bn, or 9.8 percent, compared to December 2017.
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. Meanwhile, 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 basis the imports decreased by 13 percent.
In previous months also, the data showed that Qatar has registered a steady increase in the trade surplus.
In January, Qatar exported goods and services to about 59 countries. 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, followed by Japan with almost QR4.5bn and a share of 17.8 percent and China with about QR3.3bn, a share of 13 percent.
The main reason for this significant increase in total value of exports was mainly due to the rebound in the prices of petroleum and other hydrocarbons products.
The leadership of the country has always mentioned that international trade and investment represent main components of Qatar’s economic diversification policy.
The wise policies adopted by the able leadership helped stimulate all sectors of the country to increase their productivity, which reflected positively on the national economy and helped it achieve positive growth. All these data confirmed that the nation’s economy is siege-proof.
This crisis has provided the opportunity to make the Qatari economy more open to all countries in the world. Qatar succeeded in the development of direct trade routes with a number of strategic ports and turn them towards the main trading partners of the state. All these points confirm that the siege has contributed to enhancing the economic competitiveness of Qatar, making the country more stronger.
