Qatar Chamber has released its quarterly report, and here are the highlights.

The Gulf nation’s private sector exports exceeded QAR 33 billion in 2022, marking a 25% increase compared to the year before, new statistics have found.

Qatar Chamber’s recently released quarterly report for last year, highlights major achievements in the country’s exports and imports numbers as well as steady growth due to major investments.

According to the report, the value of private-sector exports jumped 25% on an annualised basis to QAR 26 billion in 2021 and a staggering 118% to QAR 15bn compared to 2020.

The total value of private sector exports during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022 on an annualised basis was QAR 7.01bn, down 9% from the same period the year prior, when it was QAR 7.69bn.

The dip is attributed to the decrease in the value of all certificate of origin models declining, with the exception of the GSP and Unified GCC models, which showed a yearly increase.

Exports via the Unified GCC model were estimated at QAR 1.4bn, representing an increase of 5.4% on an annual basis from Q R1.32bn in Q4/2021.

On the other hand, exports under the Unified Arab model totaled QAR145m, a decrease of 46.7% annually from Q4/2021 when it hit QAR 273m.

Similarly, exports through the General model totalled QAR 4.59bn, down 19.4% year over year in Q4/2021 ($5.69bn) and 19.7% on a quarterly basis in Q3 ($5,715.27mn) of 2022.

Only two out of ten commodities were up during Q4, according to the QC report.

Fuel exports totalled QAR 2.15bn, a significant increase of 125.3% annually from the value of QAR 957mn during the same period the previous year. Similar to this, steel exports totalled QAR286.7mn, a 15.4% year-over-year increase from QAR248.4mn in Q4-2021.

Better economy, more jobs

The spike in numbers follows trends over the past decade that has seen Qatar’s economy thrive and in turn launching major opportunities in the Gulf state.

The Ministry of Labour and Civil Service and Government Development this week revealed that a total of 7,127 jobs were created across Qatar’s public and private sectors in 2022.

With over 5,000 people hired, the public sector generated the most job openings over the past year. Women made up 69% of new hires, and they filled most of the open positions.

The Primary Healthcare Cooperation, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, and Hamad Medical Corporation were the top hiring organisations within the government sector.

1,850 Qataris were hired in the private sector in 2022. 52% of newly hired employees were men, while 48% of candidates were women. The most in-demand specialties in the private sector were business management, engineering, and accounting.