Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The Coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected businesses and industries, especially global trade and levels of exports and imports, which have also been affected by the global lockdown imposed by the pandemic.
A new report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia on economic and social development in the Arab region indicates that the Gulf Cooperation Council countries have been hit hard this year by low oil prices and reduced demand for it due to the closure and travel suspension, with a loss of about 7.7% of Its true exports.
Kuwait and the UAE are the two most affected countries, as they lost 8.7% and 10.6% of real exports, respectively, while Oman lost only 3.7% of its real exports in 2020 compared to 2019. These countries are expected to witness a recovery in 2021, raising the volume of their goods. Exported to pre-crisis levels, according to the report.
In terms of international trade, total exports in the Arab region amounted to about $ 902 billion, a decrease of 5% compared to 2018, due to the decrease in oil exports in Algeria and Libya.
In contrast, total imports amounted to about 830 billion dollars, an increase of 5% over the year 2018. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for about 46% of total Arab exports for the year 2019, making it the main recipient of Arab exports.
China, India and Japan are still the main importers from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the United States are the main trading partners of other Arab countries, except for Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, which are mostly traded with Europe.
The main commodity exported from the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council is oil, as the GCC countries are still heavily dependent on fuel revenues, ranging from 53% in Bahrain to about 91% in Kuwait, which posed great challenges to government financing in the year. 2021.
Find out more about the expectations of export and import levels in 2021 compared to 2020, according to United Nations estimates, in the above infographic:
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