Private sector’s exports return to pre-coronavirus levels
Qatar Chamber has issued its monthly economic newsletter for August 2020 which highlighted the most prominent trends in the Qatari economy, as well as statistics related to foreign trade and trade of private sector in May 2020.
The report, prepared by QCs Researches & Studies Department, highlighted a report about Covid-19 and digital transformation that showed that Qatar was ranked in higher position in ITC regionally and globally.
It also pointed to the Global Economic Competitiveness Report 2019 issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that showed that Qatar ranked 8th globally in ICT Adoption Pillar and the first in the world and in the Arab world in the ‘Internet User’ indicator and the spread of high-speed Internet services (Broadband).
All these factors enabled Qatar to succeed in managing the economic process appropriately without any difficulties during the precautionary measures adopted to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The QC report also referred to a quarterly newsletter for the second quarter of the year 2020 issued by the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation, stating that Qatar has managed to attract foreign investments worth $4.5bn over the past five years.
QC newsletter also highlighted the Qatar-German Business Forum held in August, through video conference, with the participation of HE Qatar Chamber Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed al-Thani and HE the President of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry Peter Ramsauer, and HE the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Germany Mohammed bin Jaham al-Kuwari, and a number of officials from both sides, senior Qatari and German businessmen, and a large number of heads and representatives of Qatari and German companies.
The Qatari-German business platform for the forum witnessed interaction by a number of Qatari and German companies, during which bilateral business meetings were held, as well as discussions were held between Qatari and German companies on the possibility of establishing commercial partnerships in the Qatari and German markets.
The QC report also included figures from the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) about Qatar’s total value of foreign merchandise trade in June and the private sector’s exports as per certificates of origin issued by the Chamber.
Total value of foreign merchandise trade in June reached QR 19.6bn, which increased by 9.8% from QR19.3bn in April.
The total exports of goods (including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports) reached QR 12.7 billion, while imports during the same month reached about QR 6.9 billion.
Therefore, the foreign merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, showed a surplus of QR 5.8 billion, recording an increase of 7.4 percent compared to QR 5.4 billion in May.
In June 2020, China was Qatar’s largest trade partner with trade exchange volume close to QR 3.2 billion, a share of 16.3 percent of Qatar’s total foreign trade.
The private sector’s exports in June showed a rebound in the national economy for the second month in a row. They saw a significant month-on-month increase of 60% from QR 609 million in May to QR 973 million in June.
Exports through the GCC model certificate of origin form have the largest value in June, increasing 93% m-o-m, while the lowest was the Unified Arab certificate which increased by only 19%.
With regard to exports of private sector in H1 of the current year, it is obvious that they have steadily improved, recording a 70% growth compared to 47% in April which was the lowest value due to the precautionary measures to face the pandemic of coronavirus.
Exports of steel have seen a sharp increase of 488% from QR 0.94 in May to QR 0.16 million in June, followed by Paraffin which increased by 160% from QR 29mn in May to QR 74 mn in June and Chemical Substances with exports amounted to QR 95mn compared to QR 40mn in May, an increase of 136%.
Aluminum recorded an increase of 99% from QR 160mn in May to QR 318 mn in June.
In June 2020, India was at the top of the countries of destination of private sector’s exports with close to QR 247mn, a share of 25.4% of the total exports. It was followed by Oman with almost QR 174mn and a share of 17.9 percent, Turkey with about QR 79mn, a share of 8.1 percent.
Sweden comes in fourth place with almost QR71mn, a share of 7.3 percent, and Netherlands with about QR 40mn, a share of 4 percent.
