Arab News: Qatar’s trade balance surplus has surged to hit 28.2 billion Qatari riyals ($7.75 billion) in December 2022, according to a report released by the country’s Planning and Statistics Authority.
The figure reflects a 10 percent increase on an annual basis and a 7.6 percent climb on a monthly basis, the report revealed.
The surge in the Gulf country’s trade balance surplus is mainly attributed to the increase in exports and the curbing of imports, the report added.
This comes as the value of Qatari exports of local origin and re-exports amounted to about 38.3 billion riyals in December 2022. The figure reflects an increase of 7.6 percent compared to December 2021 and an increase of 3.1 percent from November 2022, according to the report.
In addition to this, the value of merchandise imports during December 2022 also jumped 7.7 percent from the previous month, to reach an estimated 10.1 billion riyals, the report highlighted.
Meanwhile, the value of Qatar's exports of oil, gas, and condensate rose during the month of December to 26.2 billion riyals, reflecting an increase of 12.9 percent on an annual basis and 6.1 percent on a monthly basis.
During the same month – December 2022 - China and India accounted for almost a third of Qatar's exports, the authority’s report showed.
China came at the top of the destination countries for Qatari exports with a value of 8.4 billion riyals, accounting for 21.9 percent of the total value of exports. China was followed by India with a value of 4.2 billion riyals, representing 11 percent of the total value of exports.
In 2022, Qatar posted a budget surplus of 30 billion riyals for the third quarter of 2022, the Finance Ministry announced.
In its briefing on the actual data of Qatar's budget in the third quarter of 2022, the ministry said that the total revenues for this quarter amounted to 81.8 billion riyals, of which 76.3 billion riyals were oil and gas revenues, while non-oil revenues were estimated at 5.5 billion riyals.
The ministry's data had revealed earlier that Qatar's budget surplus in the first half of 2022 doubled several times to reach 47.3 billion riyals, compared to a surplus of 4 billion riyals during the same period of 2021.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2240981/business-economy
