Mubasher: Qatar's trade balance surplus with Japan surged 38.6% year-on-year in January 2018, according to the Japanese Ministry of Finance's monthly bulletin on Monday.

The trade balance surplus between the two nations amounted to JPY 131.9 billion ($1.23 billion) in the first month of the year, the official data showed.

Exports of the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan jumped 37.1% year-on-year to JPY 144.71 billion ($1.36 billion) in January.

While Qatar’s total imports from Japan levelled up 23.7% to JPY 12.77 billion ($12 million) during the previous month.