Qatar registers 1% increase in industrial production in April

Robustmanufacturing sector and higher extraction of hydrocarbons helped Qatarregister a 1% month-on-month increase in the industrial production inApril this year, according to the official estimates.The country’sIndustrial Production Index (IPI), however, showed a 1.6% decline on ayearly basis in April 2019, said the figures released by the Planningand Statistics Authority (PSA).The PSA introduced IPI, a short-termquantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of productionof a selected basket of industrial products over a given period withrespect to a base period 2013.The mining and quarrying index, whichhas a relative weight of 83.6%, saw a 1% expansion owing to a 1% growthin the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 1.6% in othermining and quarrying sectors.On a yearly basis, the index declined2.1% as the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas retreated morethan 2% and other mining and quarrying plummeted 15.4%.Themanufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a flatcourse in April 2019 on a monthly basis despite 6.5% surge in themanufacture of beverages, 2.1% in chemicals and chemical products, 2% inbasic metals and 1.5% in the manufacture of rubber and plasticsproducts.Nevertheless, there was an 8.2% plunge in the manufactureof refined petroleum products, 4.8% in the manufacture of cement andother non-metallic mineral products and 0.9% in food products.On ayearly 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% infood products and 2.2% in chemicals and chemical products; even as therewas 14.9% shrinkage in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallicmineral products, 11.2% in refined petroleum products, 5% in printingand reproduction of recorded media and 4.9% in rubber and plasticsproducts.Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, sawits 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 a0.5% weight, there was a 6% growth month-on-month where it recorded a10.3% decline on a yearly basis in April 2019.