Higher extraction of hydrocarbons and robust expansion in the production of beverages and chemicals helped Qatar's industrial production record 2.2% year-on-year growth in December 2018, according to official estimates.

The country's Industrial Production Index (IPI), however, showed a 1.7% decline month-on-month in December previous year, said 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 83.6%, saw a 2.7% surge year-on-year in November 2018 owing to a 2% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas; even as other mining and quarrying plummeted 2.9%.

On a monthly basis, the index showed a 1.5% dip as the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas contracted 1.5%; but other mining and quarrying was up a marginal 0.2%.

The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a 0.4% rise year-on-year in November 2018 on account of a 5% expansion in the production of beverages, 2.3% in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products and 2.1% in the manufacture of rubber and plastics products.

Nevertheless, there was a 14.8% fall in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 12.9% in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 2.1% in the manufacture of refined petroleum products and 0.1% in the manufacture of food products as well as basic metals.

On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index had witnessed a 1.7% shrinkage on a 11.9% decline in the production of beverages, 3.5% in the manufacture of refined petroleum products, 3% in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, 0.9% in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products and 0.8% in the manufacture of food products; whereas there was a 8.3% increase in the manufacture of basic metals, 3.9% in the manufacture of rubber and plastics products and 1% in printing and reproduction of recorded media.

Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index contract 1.3% and 18.9% on yearly and monthly basis respectively in November 2018; whereas in the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was an 8.2% growth in the index year-on-year but saw a marginal 0.5% growth on monthly basis.

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