Qatar's Industrial Production Index Decreased in March

Doha, May 19 (QNA) - Planning and Statistics Authority has issued a press release for March 2019 of industrial production index to study and analyze the economic level of the state. It shows that the Industrial Production index (IPI), decreased by 4.1 percent in March compared to the previous month (February-2019), and decreased by 0.1 percent, when compared to the corresponding month of 2018. The Industrial Production 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 index of Mining sector showed a decrease by 4.8 percent compared to the previous month (February of 2019), as a result of the decrease in the quantities of "crude oil and natural gas" by 4.8 percent, while "Other mining and quarrying" showed an increase by 0.2 percent. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (March 2018), the IPI of Mining decreased by 0.4 percent. While the index of Manufacturing shows a decrease of 0.4 percent is recorded in March 2019 compared to the previous month (February -2019), refer to decrease in production of, "Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products" by 2.4 percent. An increase was recorded in seven groups: "Manufacture of beverages" by 4.3 percent, "Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products" by 3.8 percent, "Manufacture of refined petroleum products" by 3.5 percent, "Manufacture of basic metals" by 3.0 percent, "Manufacture of rubber and plastics products" by 2.2 percent, "Manufacture of food products" & "Printing and reproduction of recorded media" by 1.3 percent each. On the other hand, in terms of annual change, comparing to March 2018, an increase of 2.3 percent was recorded, affected by the following groups: "Manufacture of basic metals" by 11.4 percent, "Manufacture of beverages" by 10.1percent, "Manufacture of refined petroleum products" by 3.3 percent, "Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products" by 2.0 percent, "Manufacture of food products" by 0.7 percent However, a decrease recorded in "Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products" by 12.5 percent, "Printing and reproduction of recorded media" by 10.5 percent, "Manufacture of rubber and plastics products" by 7.2 percent. The index of Electricity shows a decrease of 6.3 percent in the production of "Electricity" group between March 2019 and the previous month (February -2019), while the annual decrease (comparing with March 2018), was 16. 4 percent, and the index of the Water sector when compared March 2019 with the previous month, a decrease of 1.8 percent was noticed. Comparing with corresponding month (March 2018), a decrease of 17.2 percent was recorded. (QNA)