Qatar's industrial production surges year-on-year in March: PSA

Qatar's industrial production increased 1.1% on an annualised basis in May 2023, on the back of faster expansion, especially in non-hydrocarbons such as chemicals and food products, according to official data.
The country's industrial production index (IPI), however, tanked 6.3% on a monthly basis in the review period, according to the 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%, rose by a marginal 0.8% on a yearly basis owing to a 0.8% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas but other mining and quarrying sectors rose faster at 5.9%.
On a monthly basis, the sector index plummeted 7.7% on account of a 7.7% slump in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, even as other mining and quarrying sectors shot up 4.3% in the review period.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.85%, expanded 3.6% year-on-year this May as there was a 12% increase in the production of chemicals and chemical products, 5.5% in food products, 1.7% in basic metals and 1.1% in beverages.
Nevertheless, there was a 13% contraction in the production of refined petroleum products, 10.3% in rubber and plastics products, 9.1% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, and 8.7% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products in the review period.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index fell 1.1% owing to an 11.1% contraction in the production of refined petroleum products, 2.3% in food products, and 1.6% in rubber and plastics products in May 2023.
However, there was a 6.7% increase in the production of beverages, 4.5% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 2.1% in basic metals, 0.6% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, and 0.6% in chemicals and chemical products in the review period.
Electricity, which has a 1.16% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index surge 1%and 34.7% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in May 2023.
In the case of water, which has a 0.53% weight, the index was seen declining 0.3% on an annualised basis but gained 8.7% month-on-month in the review period.