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Business / Qatar Business

Industrial production inches up 0.3% y-o-y in December

Published: 20 Feb 2019 - 12:21 am | Last Updated: 30 Nov 2021 - 05:33 am

By Mohammad Shoeb I The Peninsula

Qatar’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) for December 2018 stood at 105.6 points showing an increase of 0.3 percent compared to the corresponding month in 2017, official data show.

When compared on monthly basis, the IPI index registered a marginal decline of 0.6 percent compared to November 2018, according to figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority.

The IPI consists of three main components: “Mining” with a relative importance of 83.6 percent, “Manufacturing” with a relative importance of 15.2 percent, “Electricity” with a relative importance of 0.7 percent, and finally “Water” with a relative importance of 0.5 percent. It is a short-term quantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of productions of a selected basket of industrial products over a given period.

The analysis of the monthly IPI said the index of ‘Mining’ sector showed a decrease by 0.3 percent compared to the previous month (November of 2018), as a result of the decrease in the quantities of “crude oil and natural gas” by 0.3 percent, while “Other mining and quarrying” showed a decrease by 1.1 percent.

A decrease of 1.5 percent is recorded in ‘Manufacturing’ sector in December 2018 compared to the previous month, because of the decrease in production of five groups: “Manufacture of beverages” by 3.6 percent, “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 3.1 percent, “Manufacture of food products” by 2.0 percent, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 1.4 percent, “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 1.2 percent. An increase was recorded in two groups: “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 0.5 percent, “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 0.4 percent. No change noticed in “Printing and reproduction of recorded media”.

A decrease of 20.7 percent in the production of “Electricity” group between December 2018 and the previous month (November -2018), while the annual decrease (comparing with December 2017), was 3.1 percent. When compared December 2018 with the previous month, an increase of 0.8 percent was noticed in ‘Water’ sector. Comparing with corresponding month (December 2017), a decrease of 6.6 percent was recorded.