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Tribune News Network
Doha
The year 2021 would be a year of recovery for Qatar’s economy from the setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Qatar Chamber (QC) has said in its monthly economic newsletter issued on Wednesday.
Citing Qatar’s general budget for 2021, the report said that the country’s GDP is expected to grow by 2.2 percent following a decline of 2.6 percent in 2020 due to the precautionary measures taken to combat the pandemic.
Outlining the growth of industrial sector during 2020, the QC report said that the number of industrial facilities registered by the end of 2020 reached 927 compared to 862 at the beginning of the same year with the establishment of 65 new industrial factories
in 2020.
Citing figures given by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) for October 2020, the report said that the total value of foreign merchandise trade amounted to QR 23.6 billion, showing an increase of 15.7 percent compared to September 2020, which amounted to
QR 20.4 billion.
In October 2020, the total exports of goods including exports of goods of domestic origin and re-exports amounted to around QR 15.3 billion, showing an increase of 14.1 percent compared to QR 13.4 billion in September, while imports during the same month amounted to around QR 8.3 billion, showing an increase of 18.3 percent compared to QR7 billion in September.
Therefore, the country’s trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports showed a surplus of QR7 billion, recording an increase of 9.5 percent compared to QR6.4 billion in September.
In October 2020, China was at the top of the countries of destination of Qatar’s foreign trade with about QR 3.3 billion, a share of 14 percent of the state’s total
foreign trade. The report also featured the trade of private sector during October 2020 according to the certificate of origin issued by the Chamber which reached QR 1.240 billion, showing an increase of 13.7 percent compared to QR 1.091 in September.
This surge in private sector’s exports demonstrated that the Qatari economy has recovered from the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and gradually started to return its levels before
the crisis.
The private sector’s exports increased by 117 percent compared to April which was the lowest value during the year and by 37 percent compared to February which is the highest value.
The newsletter showed that the private sector exports through the General Model certificate of origin have the largest value in October, increasing 70 percent month-on-month compared to September 2020, while exports through other models decreased in varying
percentages.
Exports through Unified GCC model decreased by 55.2 percent, followed by GSP and the Unified Arab model by 21.3 percent. Goods exported through the Unified GCC certificate of origin for exporting to Singapore amounted to $ 13mn in October, while there are no exports registered
in September.
According to the type of commodities, exports of petrochemicals have seen a sharp increase of 1000 percent from QR 31 million in September to QR 382 million in October, while exports of aluminium and essential and industrial oils decreased by 13 percent and 25 percent respectively.
In October 2020, Italy was at the top of the countries of destination of the private sector’s exports with close to QR336 million, a share of 27.1 percent of the total exports, followed by India with almost QR 279 million and a share of 22.5 percent, and Germany with about QR 124 million, a share of 10 percent.
Turkey came in fourth place with almost QR 90 million, a share of 7.3 percent and Oman with about QR 79 million, a share of 6.3 percent.
At the level of blocs and groupings, EU countries were at the top of economic blocs that received exports of private sector amounted to QR555 million with a share of 44.7 percent of the total value, followed by Asian states with a share of 41.5 percent with exports of QR515 million.
In third place came the group of GCC states, with exports totaling QR 96 million representing 7.7 percent of the total value, followed by Arab countries excluding GCC states that received 62 million, a share of 5.04 percent and African Countries excluding Arab countries with exports amounted
to 9 million, a share of
0.76 percent.
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07/01/2021
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