Qatar's producers' price index (PPI) surged 54.25% year-on-year in August 2022, mainly on the back of the country's hydrocarbons sector and certain manufacturing businesses such as refined petroleum products, rubber and plastics, chemicals and basic metals and according to the official estimates.
Qatar's PPI, which captures the price pressure felt by the producers of goods and services, rose 3.17% on a monthly basis in the review period, the figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
The PSA had released a new PPI series in late 2015. With a base of 2013, it draws on an updated sampling frame and new weights. The previous sampling frame dates from 2006, when the Qatari economy was much smaller than today and the range of products made domestically much narrower.
The hardening of the global crude oil and industrial input prices, on account of higher inflation and interest rates, had its reflection in the PPI.
The mining PPI, which carries the maximum weight of 82.46%, reported a 63.86% surge on an annualised basis in August 2022 as the average selling price of crude petroleum and natural gas was seen soaring 63.95% and that of stone, sand and clay by 12.46%.
The mining PPI escalated 5.12% on a monthly basis in August this year on the back of a 5.13% jump in the average selling price of crude petroleum and natural gas but there was a 1.56% decline in that of stone, sand and clay.
The manufacturing sector PPI, which has a weight of 15.85% in the basket, zoomed 12.99% year-on-year in August 2022 due to a 42.55% growth in the average price of rubber and plastic products, 26.85% in refined petroleum products, 14.8% in basic metals, 9.58% in chemical and chemical products, 9.19% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products and 2.99% in food products.
Nevertheless, there was a 4.05% decline in the average price of printing and reproduction of recorded media and 1.29% in beverages.
The manufacturing sector PPI saw a monthly 8.07% dip this August as the average selling price of chemicals and chemical related products shrank 11.13%, followed by refined petroleum products (6.19%), basic metals (2.96%), printing and reproduction of recorded media (0.16%) and cement and other non-metallic mineral products (0.07%).
However, there was a 5.26% increase in the average selling price of rubber and plastics products, beverages (0.17%) and food products (0.09%).
The index of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply reported 1.71% and 11.22% decrease on yearly and monthly basis respectively this August.
The index of water supply weakened 1.76% on an annualised basis but reported a 4.63% jump month-on-month in August 2022.