Monthly IPI for March decreases marginally

DOHA: The monthly Industrial Production Index (IPI) for March 2018 stood at 103.4 points, showing a marginal decrease of 0.5 percent compared to the previous month (February-2018). When compared on year-on-year basis, the IPI index has decreased by 4.4 percent compared to the corresponding month of 2017, official data show.

The industrial production index (IPI), issued the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS), study and analyze the economic activities in various sectors of the state, which include the growth of various industrial sectors of the local economy, including mining, quarrying, water and electricity production, and manufacturing sector.

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 IPI 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 “Mining” sector’s index showed a decrease by 1.0 percent compared to the previous month (February of 2018), as a result of the decrease in the quantities of crude oil and natural gas produced by 1.0 percent, and increase in “Other mining and quarrying” by 2.8 percent. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (March 2017), the IPI of Mining sector decreased by 4.9 percent.

With regard to the “Manufacturing” sector index, an increase of 1.4 percent was recorded in March 2018 compared to the previous month (February-2018), due to the increase in production of seven groups: “Manufacture of basic metals” by 10.9 percent, “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 7.3 percent, “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 6.0 percent, “Manufacture of beverages” by 5.9 percent,

“Manufacture of food products” by 5.4 percent,“ Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 1.2 percent, “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 0.6 percent. However a decrease was recorded in:”Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 2.7 percent.

On the other hand, in terms of annual change, comparing to March 2017, a decrease of 1.4 percent was recorded, affected by the following groups: “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 7.4 percent, “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products “by 1.9 percent.

However, a rise was recorded in “Manufacture of beverages” by 26.5 percent, “Manufacture of food products” by 24.0 percent, “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 13.5 percent, “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 9.4 percent ,“Manufacture of basic metals” by 2.8 percent, “Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 2.6 percent.

In the “Electricity” sector, an increase of 14.3 percent in the production of “Electricity” group between March 2018 and the previous month (February-2018), while the annual decrease (comparing with March 2017), was 7.0 percent.

For the “Water” sector, when comparing March 2018 with the previous month, an increase of 4.8 percent was noticed, and a decrease of 10.8 percent was recorded when comparing with the corresponding month (March 2017) in the previous year.