Qatar - Higher extraction of crude and natural gas as well as increased manufacturing, especially in refined petroleum products, helped Qatar's industrial production index shoot up 12.4% on an annualised basis in February 2023, according to the official statistics.

However, the country’s IPI witnessed a 4.2% decline month-on-month 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 14.3% surge on a yearly basis owing to a 14.3% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 9.3% in other mining and quarrying sectors.

On a monthly basis, the index tanked 4.4% on account of a 4.4% contraction in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 1.7% in other mining and quarrying sectors in the review period.

The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.85%, shot up 4.1% year-on-year this February as there was a 34.7% surge in the production of refined petroleum products, 7.6% in beverages, 4.5% in food products, 4.5% in basic metals, 1.2% in rubber and plastics products and 0.8% in chemicals and chemical products.

Nevertheless, there was a 12.1% plunge in the production of cement and other non-metallic mineral products and 9.1% in printing and reproduction of recorded media in the review period.

On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index shrank 3.3% owing to a 9.3% contraction in the production of refined petroleum products, 3.9% in chemicals and chemical products, 2.3% in beverages and 0.2% in food products in February 2023.

However, there was a 2.9% increase in the production of basic metals, 1.4% in rubber and plastics products and 0.5% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products in the review period.

Electricity, which has a 1.16% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index zoom 14.5% on an annualised basis but was down 1.9% month-on-month in February 2023.

In the case of water, which has a 0.53% weight, the index was seen plummeting 10.7% and 17.9% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in the review period.

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