Qatar imports rebound sharply in August: data

Economic impact of sanctions fading

DUBAI, Sept 27, (RTRS): The value of Qatar’s imports rebounded sharply in August from July, government data showed on Wednesday, suggesting the economic impact of sanctions imposed by other Arab states is fading.

Imports plunged by over a third after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on June 5.

The sanctions — over accusations of supporting terrorism, which Doha denies — disrupted shipping routes to Qatar and closed its land border with Saudi Arabia, over which food and building materials were imported.

In August, however, imports jumped 39.1 percent to 8.68 billion riyals ($2.38 billion), the planning and statistics ministry said.

Imports were 7.8 percent below their year-earlier levels, but that still marked a major recovery from levels of June and July, when they dropped more than 35 percent year on year.

Since the diplomatic crisis erupted, Qatari companies and foreign shippers have sought to establish new shipping routes to Qatar via other countries including Oman, compensating for the loss of Dubai as a trans-shipment centre.

Those efforts now appear to be bearing fruit.

Imports of large equipment recovered sharply in August after being slowed for a couple of months by the disruption to shipping routes.

Gas turbine equipment, some of it used in the production of natural gas, increased 76.5 percent from a year ago to 630 million riyals while aircraft parts surged 39.7 percent to 306 million riyals.

Motor vehicle imports continued to slump, however. They were down 57.8 percent from a year earlier at 267 million riyals.

This may have been caused by damage to domestic consumption and consumer sentiment in the wake of the crisis. The stock market has plunged and some analysts believe economic growth has slowed, although they do not predict a recession.

Qatar’s exports, the vast majority of them natural gas and oil, climbed 17.7 percent year-on-year to 21.30 billion riyals in August. As a result, its trade surplus expanded 45.4 percent to 12.62 billion riyals.

Meanwhile, Qatar expects the overall number of annual foreign visitors to the country to be below 2016 levels for the next three years if it remains cut off from some of its neighbours, a senior tourism official said on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia was Qatar’s single largest source market in 2016, accounting for around a third of its 2.94 million visitors.

Growth from other markets is expected to continue despite the crisis and an increase in Chinese, Indian, and Russian visitors will drive net visitor growth in 2020, said Qatar Tourism Authority Chief Tourism Development Officer Hassan al-Ibrahim.

“We are expecting in the next three years we will be able to recoup and go back to the KPIs (key performance indicators) and numbers we have put in our previous strategy,” he told Reuters at a World Tourism Day event in Doha.