Qatar witnessed a robust double-digit year-on-year growth in the production of cement, rubber and plastic products amidst a slowdown in the overall manufacturing sector in February 2021, according to Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA).
The country’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) saw a 2.1% and 7.3% year-on-year and month-month decline respectively in February 2021, as the country reintroduced the Covid-19 related restrictions.
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 1.6% decrease on a yearly basis on account of 1.5% contraction in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, even as there was a 10.4% jump in other mining and quarrying sectors.
On a monthly basis, the index showed 7.3% decline owing to a 7.7% shrinkage in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, whereas there was a marginal 0.8% jump in other mining and quarrying sectors. The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, saw a 4% contraction year-on-year in February 2021 despite 16.6% increase in the production of cement and other no-metallic mineral products, 10.7% in rubber and plastics products and 5.3% in refined petroleum products.
Nevertheless, there was an 82.4% plunge in the printing and reproduction of recorded media, 23.5% in the production of beverages, 8.8% in food products, 8.7% in basic metals and 5.1% in chemicals and chemical products.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index shrank 4.2% in February this year in spite of a 1.7% increase in the production of rubber and plastics production; even as there was a 9.5% slump in the production of beverages, 9.1% in refined petroleum products, 8% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 6.7% in food products, 3.7% in chemicals and chemical products, 3.3% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products and 1.2% in basic metals.
Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index shed 3.6% and 10.3% on a yearly and monthly basis respectively this February.
In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 12.2% and 17.4% contraction year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in February 2021.
 
 
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