A panoramic view of Mesaieed Industrial Area at night.
Doha: Qatar’s monthly Industrial Production Index (IPI) for September 2020 amounted to 100.1 points, showing a decrease of 3.9 percent compared to the previous month (August 2020), mainly as a result of the decrease in the quantities of “crude oil petroleum and natural gas, official data show.
When compared on annual basis, the index has decreased by 7.7 percent compared to the corresponding month last year (September 2019), according to data released yesterday by the Planning and Statistics Authority.
The IPI measured to study and analyze the industrial activities in the country. This index details the growth of various industrial sectors in 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: “Mining” with a relative importance of 83.6 percent, “Manufacturing” with a relative importance of 15.2 percent, “Electricity” with a relative importance of 0.7 percent, and finally “Water” with a relative importance of 0.5 percent.
The “Mining” sector index in September 2020 decrease by 3.6 percent compared to the previous month (August 2020), as a result of the decrease in the quantities of “crude oil petroleum and natural gas” by 3.6 percent, while “Other mining and quarrying” showed a decrease by 0.5 percent. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (September 2019), the IPI of Mining decreased by 7.7 percent.
The index of the “Manufacturing” sector showed a decrease of 5.6 percent in September 2020 compared to August 2020. The groups which showed a decrease included “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 26.4 percent, followed by “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 3.9 percent, “Manufacture of food products” by 3.7 percent, and “Manufacture of beverages” by 3.4 percent. However, an increase recorded in ‘’ Printing and reproduction of recorded media’’ by 9.7 percent, followed by “Manufacture of Cement and other non-metallic mineral products” by 9.1 percent, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 8.3 percent, and “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 8.0 percent.
On the other hand, in terms of annual change, comparing to September 2019, a decrease of 8.7 percent was recorded, affected by the following groups: ‘’Printing and reproduction of recorded media’’ by 83.8 percent, followed by “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 31.6 percent, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 4.6 percent, “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products”, and “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 3.1 percent each, “Manufacture of beverages” by 2.3 percent, and “Manufacture of food products” by 1.2 percent, However, an increase recorded in “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 9.8 percent.
A decrease of 4.4 percent was noticed in the production of “Electricity” between September 2020 and the previous month (August 2020), while the annual increase when comparing with September 2019, was 3.9 percent.
A decrease of 2.1 percent was noticed in the production of ‘‘Water’’ between September 2020 and the previous month (August 2020). Comparing with corresponding month (September 2019), an increase of 7.0 percent was recorded.
