(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A substantial expansion in extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas as well as increase in certain manufacturing items led Qatar's industrial production to jump 10.4% month-on-month in December 2020, as the country substantially lifted the Covid-19 related restrictions.
The country's Industrial Production Index (IPI) however declined 5.7% year-on-year in December 2020, according to 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 83.6%, saw a 12% surge month-on-month on account of 12% increase in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas and 3.8% surge in other mining and quarrying sectors.
On a yearly basis, the index showed 6.3% shrinkage owing to 6.3% decline in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, but showed a 9.2% jump in other mining and quarrying sectors.
The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, saw a 4.4% growth month-on-month in December 2020 owing to a 71.3% increase in printing and reproduction of recorded media, 7% expansion in the production of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 4.9% in refined petroleum products, 4.8% in chemicals and chemical products and 1.1% in basic metals.
Nevertheless, there was a 4.8% decline in the production of beverages, 1.2% in rubber and plastics products and 0.9% in food products.
On a yearly basis, the manufacturing index shrank 2.8% in December last year as there was a 66.4% drop in the printing and reproduction of recorded media, 13.8% in the production of beverages, 7% in food products, 6.9% in basic metals and 3.8% in chemicals and chemical products.
However, there was 19.6% increase in the production of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 5.7% in rubber and plastics products and 2.9% in refined petroleum products.
Electricity, which has a 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw its index shrink 17.4% and 3.5% on monthly and yearly basis respectively in December 2020.
In the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was a 2.2% and 1.1% decrease month-on-month and year-on-year respectively in December 2020.
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