PPI of Industrial Sector of August 2017 Rises 2.2%

Doha, October 02 (QNA) - Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector of August, 2017 showed an increase of 2.2%, reaching 51.2 points, compared with PPI of July 2017. The index also rose by 10.4% from the same month last year (August 2016). The Industrial Production Index, released Monday by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) consists of three components for three main sectors relating to Mining (weight: 72.7%), Manufacturing (weight: 26.8%), and Electricity and Water (weight: 0.5%). There was an increase of 1.7% in the mining index compared to July 2017. The increase is primarily due to the increase of prices of "Crude petroleum and natural gas" with the same percentage. PPI of August 2017, when compared with its counterpart in the previous year, there has been a considerable increase of 10.1%. An increase of 3.3% has been recorded in August, 2017, when compared with the previous month's Manufacturing index during this year. The prices increase are seen in: "Refined Petroleum products" by 5.5%, other chemical products and fibers by 5.1%, dairy products by 1.5%, and basic chemicals by 0.6%. However, the decreasing prices are noticed in beverages by 1.6%, juices by 1.4%, paper and paper products, cement and other non-metallic products by 0.9% for each, rubber and plastics products by 0.7%, grain mill and other products by 0.5% and basic metals by 0.4%. Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (August 2016), "Manufacturing" PPI of August, 2017 showed a rise of 11.1%. The major groups which explain this price increase are refined petroleum products by 19.2%, other chemical products and fibers by 16.7%, juices by 6.1%, rubber and plastics products by 1.9%, basic metals by 1.7%, grain mill and other products by 0.8% and basic chemicals by 0.3%. However, prices fall also noticed in cement and other non-metallic products by 3.7%, paper and paper products by 3.6% and beverages" by 1.4%. The PPI of Electricity and Water showed a decrease of 1.2% compared to July 2017, resulting from a decreasing price seen in water by 1.9% and electricity by 0.5%. When compared the PPI of August, 2017, to the PPI of August, 2016, showed an increase Y-o-Y of 4.7%, resulting from the rise in water by 18.1% and fall in electricity by 6.2%. (QNA)