PPI of Industrial Sector of January 2019 Decreased

Doha, March 12 (QNA) - Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for January 2019 with the base year 2013. Producer price index covers goods relating to "Mining" (weight: 72.7%), "Manufacturing" (weight: 26.8%), and "Electricity & Water" (weight: 0.5%). The PPI of January 2019 for the Mining sector showed a decrease by 4.6% when compared with PPI of December 2018, primarily due to the decrease of "Crude petroleum and natural gas" prices by 4.6%. PPI of January 2019, when compared with its counterpart in previous year (January 2018), there has been an increase of 2.8%. A decrease of 3.8% has been recorded in January 2019, when compared with the previous month's Manufacturing index (December 2018). The prices decrease are seen in: "Refined Petroleum products" by 5.5%, "Basic Chemicals" by 2.3%, "Rubber and Plastics products" by 0.9%, "Cement and Other non-metallic products" by 0.4%, "Dairy products" by 0.3%, "Juices" by 0.2%,"Grain mill and Other products" and "Beverages" by 0.1% for each. However, the increasing prices are noticed in: "Paper and Paper products " by 1.6%, and "Basic Metals" by 1.5%. No change noticed in, "Other chemical products and fibers". Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (January 2018), "Manufacturing" PPI of January 2019 showed a decrease of 7.9%. The major groups which explain this price fall are: "Refined Petroleum products" by 10.3%, "Basic Metals" by 7.7%, "Cement and Other non-metallic products" 3.8%, "Basic chemicals" by 2.1%, "Beverages" by 1.9%, "Grain mill and Other products" by 0.1%. However, prices rise also noticed in "Other chemical products and fibers" by 12.8%, followed by "Paper and Paper Products" by 11.9%, "Dairy products" by 10.0%, and "Juices" by 5.2%. "Rubber and Plastics products" remained without any change. The PPI of the Electricity and Water group showed an increase of 0.5% compared to December 2018, resulting from an increasing price in "Electricity" by 2.0%, and a decreasing in "Water" by 1.9%. When compared the PPI of January,2019, to the PPI of January 2018 Y-o-Y, showed an increase of 5.5%, affected by prices rise in "Water" by 10.5%, and "Electricity" by 2.5%. The Overall Index (PPI of Industrial sector) for January 2019 is estimated at 65.7 points showing a decrease by 4.2%, when compared to the previous month's December 2018. On Y-o-Y basis, PPI of January 2019 showed a decrease of 0.6% when compared to the PPI of January 2018. (QNA)