Santhosh V. Perumal

Qatar witnessed robust year-on-year expansion, especially in basic metals and beverages output, amidst an overall fall in the industrial production in January this year, according to the official statistics.

The country’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) saw a 2.1% and 1.8% decline year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in January 2020, according to 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 2.1% shrinkage year-on-year on account of a 2.1% decrease in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, and 6.6% in other mining and quarrying sectors.

On a monthly basis, the index showed a 1.3% fall owing to a 1.3% dip in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, and 0.3% in other mining and quarrying sectors.

The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a 2.1% yearly fall in January 2020 on a 10.1% contraction in the manufacture of refined petroleum products, 6.9% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 4.4% in chemicals and chemical products and 2.3% in food products.

Nevertheless, there was a 23% surge in the manufacture of basic metals, 10.8% in beverages, 1.3% in printing and reproduction of recorded media and 0.9% in rubber and plastics products.

On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index fell 3.8% owing to a 6.7% decline in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, 5.4% in refined petroleum products and 1.1% in beverages; whereas there was a 8.9% increase in the manufacture of basic metals, 4.7% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products and 0.3% in food products.

Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index plummet 12.8% and 8.5% on yearly and monthly basis respectively in January 2020.

In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 4.5% and 2.7% decrease year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in January.