Qatar's producers' price index (PPI), which captures the price pressure felt by the producers of goods and services, shrank 5.27% month-on-month in December 2022, according to the official estimates.
The country's PPI had declined on monthly basis on account of weaker extraction of hydrocarbons and certain manufactured products like refined petroleum products and chemicals, said the figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PPI measures inflation from the perspective of costs to industry or producers of products as it measures price changes before they reach consumers.
The PSA had released a new PPI series in late 2015. With a base of 2013, it draws on an updated sampling frame and new weights. The previous sampling frame dates from 2006, when the Qatari economy was much smaller than today and the range of products made domestically much narrower.
However, Qatar's PPI was seen gaining 1.45% year-on-year in December 2022. The hardening of the global crude oil and industrial input prices, on account of higher inflation and interest rates, had its reflection in the PPI on an annualised basis. However, the yearly increase in PPI has begun its slow down.
The mining PPI, which carries the maximum weight of 82.46%, reported a 5.68% shrinkage month-on-month in December 2022 as the average selling price of crude petroleum and natural gas was seen plummeting 5.69%.
However, the mining PPI soared 4.05% year-on-year in December 2022 as the average selling price of crude petroleum and natural gas remained elevated at 4.04% and that of stone, sand and clay at 7.51%.
The manufacturing sector PPI, which has a weight of 15.85% in the basket, shrank 3.63% on a monthly basis in December 2022 due to a 9.01% plunge in the average selling price of refined petroleum products, 3.51% in chemicals and chemical products and 0.3% in basic metals.
Nevertheless, there was a 3.12% increase in the average selling price of food products.
The manufacturing PPI tanked 11.13% year-on-year in December 2022 on account of a 17.85% plunge in the average price of chemicals and chemical products, 5.37% in basic metals, 3.49% in printing and reproduction of recorded media and 0.86% in beverages.
However, rubber and plastics sector witnessed 22.29% surge in average selling price, food products (7.2%), cement and other non-metallic mineral products (5.37) and refined petroleum products (0.28%).
The index of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply reported 6.69% surge month-on-month but shrank 5.63% year-on-year in December 2022.
The index of water supply was seen declining 0.14% and 10.8% month-on-month and year-on-year respectively in December 2022.