Qatar's manufacturing sector saw robust gains; yet the industrial production decelerated in September on a yearly basis, according to the official estimates.
The country's Industrial Production Index (IPI) showed a 2.6% and 1.4% decline year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in September this year, said the figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS).
The ministry 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 83.6%, reported a 3.6% shrinkage year-on-year in September 2018 owing to a 3.6% decrease in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, while other mining and quarrying sectors witnessed a stupendous 17.7% surge.
On a monthly basis, the index showed a 1.2% fall as the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas contracted 1.2% and other mining and quarrying by 0.7%.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a 2.9% increase year-on-year this September on account of a 16.2% expansion in the production of beverages, 13.8% in the manufacture of basic metals, 6.5% each in rubber and plastics production as well as printing and reproduction of recorded media; 2.9% in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products and 0.4% in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products.
Nevertheless, there was a 2.6% decline in the manufacture of refined petroleum products and 2.1% in the manufacture of food products.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index fell 3.2% on 5.2% plunge in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, 3.4% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 1.6% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, and 1.1% in the manufacture of basic metals; even as there was 2.9% jump in the manufacture of refined petroleum products, 2.6% in food products, 1.6% in the production of beverages and 1.6% in the manufacture of rubber and plastics products.
Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw a 2.4% decline on a yearly basis but a robust 4.8% gains on a monthly basis. In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 9% plunge on a yearly basis whereas it grew 4.8% on a monthly basis.

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