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.