Santhosh V. Perumal: Higher extraction of hydrocarbons and a robust increase in the production of basic metals and beverages led Qatar's industrial production index (IPI) to jump 1.6% year-on-year in September 2023, according to official statistics.
The country's IPI fell 1.1% on a monthly basis in the review period, according to the 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 82.46%, zoomed 1.9% on a yearly basis on a 1.9% jump in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, even as other mining and quarrying sectors reported 2.8% decline.
On a monthly basis, the sector index was seen falling 0.7% owing to a 0.7% contraction in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, and 2% in other mining and quarrying sectors in the review period.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.85%, fell 0.8% year-on-year this September as there was a 9.1% plunge in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 8.1% in the production of refined petroleum products, 5.9% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 4.9% in rubber and plastics products, 3.7% in food products and 0.5% in chemicals and chemical products.
Nevertheless, there was an 11.7% increase in the production of basic metals and 6.8% in beverages in the review period.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index declined 3% in September 2023 owing to a 4.6% decrease in the production of basic metals, 3.5% in rubber and plastics products, 3.2% in chemicals and chemical products, 1.7% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, and 1.3% in refined petroleum products.
However, there was a 1.1% expansion in the production of beverages and 0.4% in food products in the review period.
Electricity, which has a 1.16% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index surge 8.9% year-on-year but decreased 3.7% month-on-month in September 2023.
In the case of water, which has a 0.53% weight, the index was seen declining 0.9% and 3.8% on annual and monthly basis respectively in the review period.