Qatar’s foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, stood at QR6.3bn in March, Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) has said. 
This, however, represents a decrease of QR8.9bn or 58.7% compared to March 2015, it said. 
In March, the total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) amounted to QR17.1bn, showing a decrease of 33% compared to March 2015. This, however, shows a modest increase of 0.4% compared to February.
On the other hand, the import of goods in March amounted to QR10.8bn, showing an increase of 4.7% over March 2015. However, on a month-on-month (M-o-M) basis, the imports increased by 12.6%. 
The year-on-year (March 2016 on March 2015) decrease in total exports was mainly due to lower exports of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (LNG, condensates, propane, butane, etc.), reaching QR9.6bn in March.
The exports of petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals (crude) reached QR2.3bn, down 33.9% on March 2015. 
Petroleum oils and oils from bituminous minerals (not crude) reached QR0.8bn in March, down 37% on the same period in 2015.
In March, Japan topped the countries in terms of Qatari exports with QR3.8bn (22.1% share of total exports) followed by South Korea with QR2.4bn (13.8%) and India (QR2.1bn - 12.2%).
Last month, the US topped the countries in terms of Qatari imports with QR1.4bn (12.5% of the total imports) followed by United Arab Emirates (QR1bn - 9.1%) and China (QR0.9bn - 8.7%). 
In March motor cars and other passenger vehicles topped the import commodities with QR0.8bn (down 21.8% on March last year).