Qatar's industrial production increased 1.1% on an annualised basis in May 2023, on the back of faster expansion, especially in non-hydrocarbons such as chemicals and food products, according to official data.The country's industrial production index (IPI), however, tanked 6.3% on a monthly basis in the review period, according to the figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA).The PSA introduced IPI, a short-term quantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of production of a selected basket of industrial products over a given period, with respect to a base period 2013.The mining and quarrying index, which has a relative weight of 82.46%, rose by a marginal 0.8% on a yearly basis owing to a 0.8% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas but other mining and quarrying sectors rose faster at 5.9%.On a monthly basis, the sector index plummeted 7.7% on account of a 7.7% slump in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, even as other mining and quarrying sectors shot up 4.3% in the review period.The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.85%, expanded 3.6% year-on-year this May as there was a 12% increase in the production of chemicals and chemical products, 5.5% in food products, 1.7% in basic metals and 1.1% in beverages.Nevertheless, there was a 13% contraction in the production of refined petroleum products, 10.3% in rubber and plastics products, 9.1% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, and 8.7% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products in the review period.On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index fell 1.1% owing to an 11.1% contraction in the production of refined petroleum products, 2.3% in food products, and 1.6% in rubber and plastics products in May 2023.However, there was a 6.7% increase in the production of beverages, 4.5% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 2.1% in basic metals, 0.6% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, and 0.6% in chemicals and chemical products in the review period.Electricity, which has a 1.16% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index surge 1%and 34.7% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in May 2023.In the case of water, which has a 0.53% weight, the index was seen declining 0.3% on an annualised basis but gained 8.7% month-on-month in the review period.

Santhosh V. Perumal
Santhosh V. Perumal, a postgraduate in Econometrics with an advance qualification in Capital Markets and Financial Services, is Gulf Times' journalist. His coverage areas are debt and equity, hydrocarbons, international trade, environment, banks, insurance and real estate. Previously, he was in New Delhi, India as Senior Finance Correspondent of PTI.
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