Robust manufacturing sector and higher extraction of hydrocarbons helped Qatar register a 1% month-on-month increase in the industrial production in April this year, according to the official estimates.
The country’s Industrial Production Index (IPI), however, showed a 1.6% decline on a yearly basis in April 2019, 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 1% expansion owing to a 1% growth in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 1.6% in other mining and quarrying sectors.
On a yearly basis, the index declined 2.1% as the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas retreated more than 2% and other mining and quarrying plummeted 15.4%.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a flat course in April 2019 on a monthly basis despite 6.5% surge in the manufacture of beverages, 2.1% in chemicals and chemical products, 2% in basic metals and 1.5% in the manufacture of rubber and plastics products.
Nevertheless, there was an 8.2% plunge in the manufacture of refined petroleum products, 4.8% in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products and 0.9% in food products.
On a yearly basis, the manufacturing index witnessed a 1% rise on a 25.3% surge in the manufacture of basic metals, 8.1% in beverages, 3.2% in food products and 2.2% in chemicals and chemical products; even as there was 14.9% shrinkage in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 11.2% in refined petroleum products, 5% in printing and reproduction of recorded media and 4.9% in rubber and plastics products.
Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index soar 22.9% on a monthly basis but witnessed an overall 5.6% decline year-on-year in April 2019.
In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 6% growth month-on-month where it recorded a 10.3% decline on a yearly basis in April 2019.
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