Fast expansion in hydrocarbons extraction and higher production in food, non-refined petroleum products and beverages led Qatar's industrial production to surge 4.8% on an annualised basis in March 2023, according to official data.

The country's industrial production index soared 4.9% 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 6% expansion on a yearly basis owing to a 6% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 8.3% in other mining and quarrying sectors.
On a monthly basis, the index shot up 5% on account of a 5% jump in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas but other mining and quarrying sectors shrank 2.1% in the review period.

However, the manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.85%, was down 1% year-on-year this March as there was an 11.3% contraction in the production of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 9.1% in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 2.6% in chemicals and chemical products, and 1.4% in rubber and plastics products.

Nevertheless, there was a 12.8% surge in the production of food products, 6.9% in refined petroleum products, 6.2% in beverages, and 2.4% in basic metals in the review period.
On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index zoomed 3.8% owing to an 8.9% increase in the production of food products, 6.5% in beverages, 6% in chemicals and chemical products, 3.7% in refined petroleum products, andv0.9% in cement and other non-metallic mineral products in March 2023.

However, there was a 2.5% decrease in the production of basic metals, 1.9% in printing and reproduction of recorded media and 1.1% in rubber and plastics products in the review period.

Electricity, which has a 1.16% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index zoom 8.5% and 13.2% on an annualised and monthly basis respectively in March 2023.

In the case of water, which has a 0.53% weight, the index was seen gaining 0.9% and 12.8% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in the review period.

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