Volume of trade between Qatar and Turkey rises sharply by 54%; value touches $2bn
Turkey has extended a helping hand to Qatar ever since the country was subjected to an illegal blockade by neighbouring countries in June 2017.
Sure enough, relations between the two nations bloomed, and it has also had a bearing on the volume and value of trade between the two countries.
Trade between Qatar and Turkey is estimated to have topped the $2bn mark in 2018, a 54% jump compared with the previous year, Turkey’s Deputy Finance Minister Osman Dincbas was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
The top official, speaking during the launch of a Turkish trade expo in Doha yesterday, said Qatar was one of Turkey’s fastest-growing trade partners in 2018 and that the $2bn figure was expected to grow.
Ankara has emerged as one of Doha’s top partners since the start of the illegal siege. Qatar had last year pledged a $15bn package of economic projects, investments and deposits for Turkey that included an up to $3bn currency swap to firm up the country’s battered lira.
Dinçbaş said “a portion of the $15bn” had so far arrived but declined to specify how much or in what form, reported Reuters news agency.
Qatar-Turkey trade volume for the first ten months of 2018, the latest data available, indicates $1.7bn of total trade, higher than the $1.3bn in all of 2017, said a Turkish trade official said.
That trade includes goods such as Turkish food and building materials to Qatar and Qatari liquefied natural gas and aluminium to Turkey.
Turkey’s exports to Qatar increased by 61% to touch $1.2bn in 2018, and for this year, Turkey has set a target to expand its export to Qatar between $2.5bn and $3bn, with the two-way trade volume exceeding over $5bn.
“The cooperation between Turkey and Qatar is growing in all fields, including business, trade and investment. Trade volume between the two countries has seen remarkable growth over the last two years. In 2018, it reached over $2bn, and expected to make a new record this year,” Nureddin Nebati, Deputy Minister for Treasury of Turkey, told The Peninsula.
