Qatar has introduced a new industrial production index (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.
Qatar Petroleum and other entities in the hydrocarbons are the major and exclusive sources of data, being contacted periodically; either through direct visits or the electronic collection.
Manufacturers of cement, iron and aluminium, and the petrochemical and petroleum refining companies are the sources in the manufacturing activity.
“International standards are taken into account and followed in the collection, calculation and dissemination of this index in line with the requirements of the system of national accounts,” a Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) spokesman said.
The index consists of three main components: mining with a relative weight of 83.6%, manufacturing 15.2%, electricity 0.7% and water 0.5%.
Qatar’s IPI grew 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, mainly on account of production increase in crude and natural gas as well as refined petroleum products and basic metals.
On a yearly basis, the country’s IPI showed a marginal 0.2% fall in Q1 this year primarily on lower production in the manufacturing segment.
The mining and quarrying index expanded 1% on a quarterly basis in Q1, 2017 on the back of 1% rise in extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 1.2% in quarries. On a yearly basis, the index was rather unchanged despite more than 17% expansion in quarries.
However, the manufacturing index showed a 0.6% decline quarter-on-quarter in Q1 this year due to 15.1% decline in the production of beverages, 7.9% in rubber and plastics, 7.2% in cement and other non-metallic products, 5.7% in chemicals and chemical products, 1.7% in printing and reproduction of recorded media and 1.4% in food products.
Nevertheless, there was 25.6% surge in the production of refined petroleum products and 3.2% in basic metals.
On a yearly basis, the manufacturing index fell 1.1% with beverages production declining 12.7%, cement and other non-metallic products (6%), food products (5.1%), chemicals and chemical products (5%), rubber and plastics (4.7%), basic metals (4.1%) and printing and reproduction of recorded media (2.4%); even as refined petroleum products soared 23.5%. Electricity saw a 22.4% and 0.4% decline in production in Q1, 2017 on a quarterly and yearly basis respectively; while in the case of water, a decline of 1.3% was observed quarter-on-quarter but reported 3.3% increase year-on-year.