20/02/2018 05:27 AST
The latest official data released on the performance of Qatar’s industrial production showed that the economic activities in December 2017 had witnessed a moderate growth compared to the previous month (November 2017).
The Industrial Production Index (IPI) for December 2017 amounted to 105.3 points, registering an increase of 1.3 percent compared to November 2017.
When compared with year-on-year basis, the December IPI surged marginally by 0.8 percent compared to the corresponding month previous year (December 2016), data released yesterday by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) showed. The increase in the IPI was attributed to surge in manufacturing of chemicals, plastics and metal industries. Crude oil and natural gas production, and other the mining and quarrying sector also contributed significantly to the surge.
The Industrial Production Index (IPI) details out the growth of various industrial sectors in an economy such as “Mining”, “Manufacturing”, “Electricity production and “Water production and desalination”.
It is 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 that in a chosen period called the base period.
The Index consists of three main components: mining with a relative importance of 83.6 percent, manufacturing with a relative importance of 15.2 percent, electricity with a relative importance of 0.7 percent, and finally water with a relative importance of 0.5 percent.
The analysis of the monthly IPI of the “Mining” sector index for December 2017 showed an increase of 1.2 percent compared to the previous month (November of 2017), as a result of the increase in the quantities of crude oil and natural gas produced by 1.1 percent, and an increase in “Other mining and quarrying” by 1.2 percent. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (December 2016), the IPI of Mining decreased by 0.4 percent.
The “Manufacturing” sector index recorded an increase of 3.5 percent in December 2017 compared to November-2017 due to the increase in production of four groups: “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 6.7 percent, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 4 percent, and “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 3.4 percent”, “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 2.8 percent.
However, within the manufacturing sector, there were several industries that witnessed a month-on-month decline of varying degrees. A decrease was recorded in four groups: “Manufacture of beverages” by 8.7 percent, “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 7.5 percent, “Manufacture of food products” declined by 4.1 percent, and “Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 0.8 percent.
When compared on annual basis to December 2016, an increase of 6.9 percent was recorded, affected by the following groups: “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 26.5 percent, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 23.9 percent, “Manufacture of food products” by 21.7 percent, “Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 3.6 percent, “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 2.5 percent, “ Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products “ by 1.7 percent, “Manufacture of beverages” by 0.8 percent.
However a decline was recorded in “Manufacture of Cement and other non-metallic mineral products” by 5.2 percent. The production of “Electricity” noticed a monthly decline of 19.2 percent in December 2017 compared to the previous month (November-2017), while on annual basis, it increased by 12.4 percent in December 2017.
The “Water” index witnessed a decrease of 1 percent in December 2017 compared to November 2017.
The Peninsula
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