DOHA: Qatar’s industrial production in July rose 2.3 per cent from June mostly due to a jump in the mining output, which includes oil and gas production.
According to the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA), the key Industrial Production Index stood at 107.2 points in July, down 1.6 per cent from a year ago.
The mining component of the index, which has a relative weightage of 83.6 per cent, showed an increase of 2.7 per cent month-on-month and a decline of 1.9 per cent year- on- year.
The m-o-m climb in mining output was driven by increased production of crude oil and natural gas, by 2.7 percent. Production under the “other mining and quarrying” group showed a month-on-month increase of 1.5 per cent.
Qatar’s manufacturing output — which has a relative weightage of 15.2 per cent in the index — showed a slight increase in July, edging up 0.1 per cent from June.
PSA attributed this to rise in the manufacture of basic metals by 13 per cent, refined petroleum products by 10.5 per cent, beverages by 8.5 per cent and cement and other non-metallic mineral products by 0.7 per cent.
However, manufacturing output in three groups went down — chemicals and chemical products by 4 per cent, food products by 1.6 per cent and rubber and plastics products by 0.7 percent.
As for ‘Printing and reproduction of recorded media’, the production was stopped during the month of July due to the coronavirus pandemic. The relative weight of this group was distributed to the rest of the sub-groups of the manufacturing sector, and then the index for industrial production was calculated.
The manufacturing component of the IPI in July showed a 0.7-per cent decline when compared with that in the same month last year.
The fall was driven mainly by decreased productions of cement and other non-metallic mineral products by 11 per cent, refined petroleum products by 9.2 per cent, basic metals by 4.9 percent and rubber and plastics products by 2.7 per cent. However, the manufacturing output went up in three groups year-on-year — food products by 4.5 per cent, beverages by 4 per cent and chemicals and chemical products by 2.7 per cent.
Electricity output — which accounts for 0.7 per cent of IPI — increased 15.3 per cent in July month-on-month and jumped 4.1 per cent year-on-year.
Similarly, water production (desalination), which carries a weightage of 0.5 per cent, showed an increase of 3.3 per cent month-on-month and 6.4 per cent year-on-year.