Qatar foreign merchandise trade surplus amounted to QR18.5bn

The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics has released preliminary figures of the value of exports of domestic goods, re-exports and imports for January 2015. In January 2015, the total exports of goods (including exports of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to QR 28.2 billion, showing a decrease of 36.7% compared to January 2014. However, the total exports of goods decreased by 16.5% compared to December 2014.
On the other hand, the imports of goods in January 2015 amounted to QR9.7 billion, showing an increase of 10.2% over January 2014. However, on a month on month (M-o-M) basis the imports decreased by 12.5%.
In January 2015, the trade balance of goods, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR 18.5 billion, i.e. a decrease of QR 17.3 billion or 48.3% compared to January 2014. However, the trade balance of goods decreased by QR 4.2 billion or 18.4%compared to December 2014.
The year on year (January 2015 to January 2014) decrease in total exports was mainly due to lower exports of Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc.) reaching 19.4 billion in January 2015, i.e. a decrease of 37.5%, Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (crude) reaching QR 3.0 billion (58.8%), and Petroleum oils & oils from bituminous minerals (not crude)reaching QR 0.9 billion (38.4%).
In January 2015, Japan was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar's exports with QR 6.8billion, a share of 24.2% of total exports, followed by South Korea with QR 4.7 billion (16.5%) and India with QR 3.6 billion (12.8%). During January 2015, Motor cars & other passenger vehicles was at the top of the imported group of commodities, with QR0.9 billion, showing an increase of 11.1% compared to January 2014. In second place was Parts of balloons etc.; parts of aircraft, with QR 0.3 billion, showing a decrease of 50.4%, and in third place was Iron ores & concentrates, incl. roasted iron pyrites with QR 0.3 billion, increased by 165.7%.
In January 2015, China was the leading country of origin of Qatar's imports with QR 1.1 billion, a share of 11.3% of the imports, followed by United States of America with QR 1.0 billion(10.3%) and United Arab Emirates with QR 0.8 billion (8.1%).