Qatar’s trade balance surplus, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, increased by 120 percent year on year (y/y) last May compared to the same month the previous year.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Qatar Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) stated that the value of the trade surplus was 36.6 billion riyals ($10 billion) last month, an increase of 20 billion riyals from May 2021.
The value of Qatari exports (including both domestic and re-exports) was 45.3 billion riyals, an increase of 81.9 percent over May of last year.
Last month, the value of merchandise imports increased by 5.5 percent y/y to approximately 8.8 billion riyals.
According to the statement, China topped the destination countries for Qatar’s exports last month, with a value of 7 billion riyals, accounting for 15.5 percent of total Qatari export value. It was followed by India with a value of 5.4 billion riyals, making up 11.9 percent of total export value, and the United Kingdom (UK) with a value of 4.7 billion riyals, amounting to 10.3 percent of total export value.
Moreover, China topped last month the list of countries of origin for Qatar’s imports with 1.3 billion riyals, or 15.3 percent of the total value of merchandise imports, followed by the United States (US) with 900 million riyals, or 10.8 percent. The US was followed by India with imports amounting to 600 million riyals, or 6.7 percent of the total value of these imports.
