Qatar’s Industrial Production Index witnesses 3.8% decline in November

Qatar’s industrial production was on a decelerating mode, both on yearly and monthly basis, in November last year, according to the official statistics.
The country’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) witnessed a 3.8% year-on-year decline owing to lower reported production in the case of hydrocarbons and some non-hydrocarbons as cement, chemicals, refined petroleum products and food products, said the figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA). The index had seen a 2.5% fall month-on-month. 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 3.8% contraction year-on-year on account of 3.9% shrinkage in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 9.2% in other mining and quarrying sectors.
On a monthly basis, the index showed a 2% decline owing to a 2.1% fall in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and a marginal 0.3% in other mining and quarrying sectors.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a 2.5% yearly decrease in November 2019 on an 8.5% fall in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 6.2% in refined petroleum products, 5.2% in chemicals and chemical products and 2.4% in food products.
Nevertheless, there was a 20.2% surge in the manufacture of base metals, 8.6% in beverages, 0.4% in printing and reproduction of recorded media and 0.2% in rubber and plastics products.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index witnessed a 2.9% decline on a 4.3% fall in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 4% in chemicals and chemical products, 2.7% in refined petroleum products, and 2% in beverages; whereas there was 2.1% increase in the manufacture of rubber and plastics products, 1.9% in basic metals and 1.5% in food products.
Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index plummet 21% and 35% on yearly and monthly basis respectively in November 2019.
In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 3.9% and 5.6% decrease year-on-year and month-on-month respectively last November.