Qatar’s trade balance surplus narrowed to 19.6%

Yesterday, Sunday, the Qatar Planning and Statistics Authority released its preliminary report on foreign trade statistics for March, which showed a decline in the trade balance surplus of 19.6 percent in March on a year-on-year basis.
The value of total exports, which includes local exports and re-exports, was approximately 30.9 billion riyals, down 15.5 percent year-on-year, and down 0.6 percent month-on-month.
The value of merchandise imports fell to about 9.6 billion Qatari riyals ($2.6 billion) in March, down 4.6 percent from the same month last year and up 18.1 percent from last February.
In light of this, the merchandise trade balance, which represents the difference between total exports and imports, reached a surplus of 21.3 billion riyals in March, a decrease of 5.2 billion riyals or 19.6 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. , and a decline of about 1.6 billion riyals or 7.2 percent compared to last February.
After months of hundreds of thousands of soccer fans flocking to its hotels and stadiums, Qatar is trying to bounce back from a post-World Cup slump by hosting more global events.
Since the end of the FIFA World Cup on December 18 (December), the city’s businessmen have nostalgically recalled the era of the World Cup, which allowed it to attract 1.4 million visitors, according to official figures.
Within 4 months, thousands of foreign workers left the Gulf country, while luxury hotels built for the global soccer event laid off hundreds of employees. According to Agence France-Presse. Meanwhile, Qatar, with large gas reserves, is one of the economic powerhouses in the region. After posting a trade surplus of nearly $100 billion in 2022, Qatar is expected to grow 3.4 percent this year, according to World Bank figures.
According to official figures, the tiny country’s population has grown by around 100,000 since the World Cup finals, to more than 3 million.
Akbar Al-Baker, chairman of the Qatar Tourism Authority and CEO of Qatar Airways Group, confirmed that hotel bookings are often “low” in the months following the World Cup. He said that Qatar has invested in tourism and is focusing more on hosting major events, which will attract more than 5 million visitors this year, more than double the number of tourists registered in 2019. Crisis.
Company owners expect Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who took office in March, to soon announce measures to diversify the gas and oil-based economy and attract foreigners. With high capabilities, in the face of increasing competition from neighboring Gulf countries, according to the agency «. French press.
Bassam Haj Ahmad, chairman of the Qatar branch of consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, said he was “certainly” the government would make changes. He emphasized that Qatari companies are willing to shift towards digital and other modern sectors and want “more resources and capabilities”.
Currently, expatriates must leave the country once their employment contracts expire, and only a small fraction of them are entitled to purchase real estate in Qatar.
Haj Ahmed believed that reforming “work and visa” laws would make Qatar more attractive. He pointed out that Qatar has many unique opportunities compared to other countries. But we need to develop a more structured approach to acquiring talent.