Qatar’s IPI rises 1.4% in March

Tribune News Network Doha The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday said that the Industrial Production Index (IPI) for March 2021 amounted ...

Tribune News NetworkDoha The Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday said that the Industrial Production Index (IPI) for March 2021 amounted to 100.7 points, an increase of 1.4 percent compared to the previous month and decrease by 0.1 percent when compared to the corresponding month in 2020.This index details the growth of various industrial sectors in the economy such as ‘mining’, ‘manufacturing’, ‘electricity production’, and ‘water production and desalination’. It is a short-term quantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of productions 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 like ‘mining’ with a relative importance of 83.6 percent, ‘manufacturing’ with a relative importance of 15.2 percent, ‘electricity’ with relative importance of 0.7 percent, and ‘water’ with a relative importance of 0.5 percent.The analysis showed that the index of ‘mining’ witnessed an increase by 0.5 percent compared to the previous month (February 2021), as a result of the increase in the quantities of ‘crude oil petroleum and natural gas’ by 0.5 percent, while ‘other mining and quarrying’ showed an increase by 3.6 percent. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (March 2020), the IPI of mining increased by 0.3 percent.The index of manufacturing sector showed an increase of 4.5 percent in March compared to the previous month. The group showed an increase in ‘printing and reproduction of recorded media’ by 23.8 percent, followed by ‘manufacture of food products’ by 13.4 percent, ‘manufacture of beverages’ by 10.9 percent, ‘manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products’ by 10.3 percent, ‘manufacture of chemicals and chemical products’ by 8.2 percent, ‘manufacture of basic metals’ by 2.4 percent, and ‘manufacture of rubber and plastics products’ by 0.7 percent. However, a decrease was recorded in ‘manufacture of refined petroleum products’ by 11.6 percent.On the other hand, in terms of annual change, compared to March 2020, a decrease of 1.4 percent was recorded. Printing and reproduction of recorded media posted a decrease of 66.2 percent, followed by ‘manufacture of refined petroleum products’ by 23.9 percent, ‘manufacture of beverages’ by 11.9 percent, ‘manufacture of food products’ by 11.5 percent, and ‘manufacture of chemicals and chemical products’ by 0.9 percent. However, an increase was recorded in ‘manufacture of cement & other non-metallic mineral products’ by 28.1 percent, ‘manufacture of basic metals’ by 24.4 percent, and ‘manufacture of rubber and plastics products’ by 12.5 percent.An increase of 41.4 percent was noticed in the production of ‘electricity’ between March 2021 and the previous month February 2021, while the annual increase when comparing with March 2020 was 9.1 percent.An increase of 9.9 percent was noticed in the production of ‘water’ between March 2021 and February 2021. Comparing with the corresponding month (March 2020), a decrease of 21 percent was recorded.