Faster expansion in the manufacture of refined petroleum products, basic metals and food products helped Qatar industrials sector remain buoyant in December 2017 amidst economic blockade.

The country's Industrial Production Index (IPI) reported a 1.3% increase month-on-month and 0.8% year-on-year in the review month, according to figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS).
The ministry 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.
According to the Qatar Central Bank figures, credit to the industrial manufacturing stood at QR7.6bn in December, which constituted about one-fourth of total loans extended to the industrial sector.
The mining and quarrying index, which has a relative weight of 83.6%, reported a 1.2% jump in December last year on a monthly basis owing to a 1.1% rise in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 1.2% in other mining and quarrying products.
On a yearly basis, the index was down 0.4% with other mining and quarrying sector registering a 6.9% decline and extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas by 0.4%.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a 6.9% surge year-on-year last December on account of a 26.5% surge in the manufacture of refined petroleum products, 23.9% in basic metals, 21.7% in food products, 3.6% in printing and reproduction of petroleum products, 2.5% in rubber and plastics products, 1.7% in chemicals and chemical products and 0.8% in beverages. However, there was a 5.2% slump in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index gained 3.5% owing to a a 6.7% expansion in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, 4% in basic metals, 3.4% in rubber and plastics products and 2.8% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products.
Nevertheless, there was a 8.7% decline in the manufacture of beverages, 7.5% in refined petroleum products, 4.1% in food products and 0.8% in printing and reproduction of recorded media.
Electricity, which has a 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw a 12.4% expansion on a yearly basis. In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 0.3% and 1% decline year-on-year and month-on-month respectively.

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