Producer Price Index of Qatar's Industrial Sector Decreased in Last November

Doha, December 31 (QNA) - The Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial Sector for November, 2018 is estimated at 72.3 points showing a decrease by 5.7%, when compared to the previous month's October 2018. On Y-o-Y basis, PPI of November, 2018 showed a rise of 18.9% when compared to the PPI of November 2017. Producer price index covers goods relating to "Mining" (weight: 72.7%), "Manufacturing" (weight: 26.8%), and "Electricity & Water" (weight: 0.5%). According to data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA), the PPI of November, 2018 for the Mining sector showed a decrease by 6.2% when compared with PPI of October 2018, primarily due to the decrease of "Crude petroleum and natural gas" prices by 6.0%. PPI of November 2018, when compared with its counterpart in previous year (November 2017), there has been a considerable increase of 25.5%. A decrease of 5.2% has been recorded in November, 2018, when compared with the previous month's Manufacturing index (October,2018). The prices decrease are seen in: "Refined Petroleum products" by 6.9%, "Basic Metals" by 5.2%, "Cement and Other non-metallic products" by 0.7%, "Basic Chemicals" by 0.4%. However, the increasing prices are noticed in: "Beverages" by 1.0%, "Grain mill and Other products", and "Rubber and Plastics products" by 0.1% each. No change noticed in, "Juices", "Dairy products", "Paper and Paper products", "Other chemical products and fibers". Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (November 2017), "Manufacturing" PPI of November, 2018 showed a rise of 6.6%. The major groups which explain this price increase are "Juices" by 17.0%, followed by "Paper and Paper Products" by 14.0%, "Other chemical products and fibers" by 12.8%, "Dairy products" by 10.6%, "Refined Petroleum products" by 8.9%, "Basic chemicals" by 5.6%, "Grain mill and Other products" by 0.3%. However, prices fall also noticed in "Rubber and Plastics products" by 4.4%, "Basic Metals" by 2.1%, "Beverages", and "Cement and Other non-metallic products" 1.6% each. The PPI of the Electricity and Water group showed a decrease of 2.6% compared to October 2018, resulting from the decreasing price in "Water" by 13.0%, and an increasing in "Electricity" by 6.9%. When compared the PPI of November, 2018, to the PPI of November, 2017 Y-o-Y, showed an increase of 2.6%, affected by prices rise in "Electricity" by 2.6%, "Water" and by 2.5%. (QNA)