Qatar industrial production jumps 3.5% month-on-month in January 2023: PSA

Faster extraction of petroleum and natural gas and higher production of refined petroleum products, basic metals and chemicals led Qatar's industrial production index (IPI) to jump 3.5% month-on-month in January 2023, according to the official statistics.However, the country’s IPI witnessed a 3.3% decline on an annualised basis in the review period, according to figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA).The PSA introduced IPI, a short-term quantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of production of a selected basket of industrial products over a given period with respect to a base period 2013.The mining and quarrying index, which has a relative weight of 82.46%, saw a 4.1% surge on a monthly basis owing to a 4.1% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 1.7% in other mining and quarrying sectors.On a yearly basis, the index tanked 3.3% on account of a 3.4% contraction in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, even as other mining and quarrying sectors saw a robust 6.8% expansion in the review period.The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.85%, zoomed 2.4% month-on-month in January 2023 owing to a 3.3% increase in the production of chemicals and chemical products, 3.1% in refined petroleum products, 2.5% in basic metals and 0.6% in printing and reproduction of recorded media.Nevertheless, there was a 9.7% contraction in the production of beverages, 3.3% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 2.6% in rubber and plastics products and 0.1% in food products in the review period.On a yearly basis, the manufacturing index grew 3.8% owing to an 18.1% surge in the production of refined petroleum products, 4.8% in chemicals and chemical products and 3.5% in beverages in January 2023.However, there was a 13.4% decline in the production of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 9.1% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 4.6% in rubber and plastics products, 0.8% in food products and 0.3% in basic metals.However, Electricity, which has a 1.16% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index plummet 15.6% month-on-month but grew 7.1% year-on-year in January 2023.In the case of water, which has a 0.53% weight, the index saw a 17.6% plunge on monthly basis but was up 2.7% on an annualised basis in the review period.