Substantially lower exports, especially of petroleum gases and crude; and higher imports led Qatar to report a 58% shrinkage year-on-year in trade surplus to QR7.25bn in January 2016, according to official estimates.
The shrinkage was rather due to precipitous decline in shipments to major Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, India and China; while imports rose especially from the US, Germany, China and Switzerland, figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) revealed.
The precipitous overall fall in the country’s trade surplus is rather reflective of the considerable drop in the energy prices, which is more than 60% lower compared with the 2014 levels.
Doha’s trade surplus shrank 17.8% compared to that in December 2015 mainly due to shrinkage in the exports of crude and natural gas as well as non-crude and also on higher imports of electrical apparatus.
The country’s total exports (valued free-on-board) plunged 33.6% y-o-y to QR17.94bn; it fell 9.4% month-on-month.
The country’s total exports of domestic products shrank 33.2% to QR17.4bn in January 2016 and it fell 9.2% against the previous month’s levels.
Qatar’s crude exports declined the most at 44.1% y-o-y to QR1.66bn; petroleum gases by 40.3% to QR11.62bn and non-crude by 25.1% to QR0.68bn; even as those of other commodities grew 27.3% to QR3.44bn.
Against December 2015 levels, there was 30.9%, 25% and 8.5% decline in the exports of non-crude, crude and petroleum gases respectively; whereas other commodities saw a 5.5% growth.
Petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons constituted 66.78% of total exports of domestic products in January 2016 compared to 74.69% the year-ago period; crude petroleum oils 9.54% (11.41%), non-crude petroleum oils and bituminous minerals 3.91% (3.49%) and other commodities 19.77% (10.41%).
On export destinations, Japan accounted for 18% of total exports of Qatar in January 2016; followed by South Korea at 17%, India 15%, China 8% and the UAE at 7%.
Qatar’s exports to Japan witnessed the maximum fall of 51.56% y-o-y to QR3.27bn; China by 37.6% to QR1.51bn; South Korea by 36.4% to QR2.97bn and India by 22.86% to QR2.7bn; while those to the UAE grew 27.18% to QR1.31bn.
The country’s re-exports plummeted 45.1% y-o-y to QR0.54bn in January 2016 and it fell 16.6% compared to the previous month’s levels.
Total imports (valued at cost insurance and freight) expanded 10.1% y-o-y to QR10.69bn in January 2016 mainly on higher pace in shipments from Switzerland, Germany and the US. Imports, however, was down 2.7% compared to those in December 2015.
The US accounted for 12% of Qatar’s imports in January 2016, followed by China and Germany (11% each), Switzerland (9%) and the UAE (7%).
Qatar’s imports from Switzerland more than quadrupled to QR1bn; those from German surged 60.26% to QR1.13bn, the US by 29% to QR1.29bn, China by 9.09% to QR1.2bn and the UAE by less than 1% to QR0.79bn.
Motor cars, parts of aircraft and helicopters and electrical apparatus comprised the main components in Qatar’s import basket.
The imports of parts of aircraft and helicopters more than doubled y-o-y to QR0.69bn, those of electrical apparatus soared 12.2% to QR0.31bn, other group by 7.2% to QR8.8bn and motor cars by less than 1% to QR0.89bn.
Against the previous month’s level, the imports of parts of aircrafts and helicopters and motor cars fell 22.4% and 20.1%; whereas those of electrical apparatus and other commodities increased 23.8% and about 1% respectively.