• 2.5% monthly decrease in General IPI.
• 1.9% monthly decrease recorded in IPI of Mining sector.
• 5.3% monthly decrease in IPI of manufacturing sector.
Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS), has issued a press release for February 2018 of industrial production index to study and analyze the economic level of the state. This index details out the growth of various industrial sectors in an 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 production of a selected basket of industrial products over a given period with respect to that in a chosen period called the base period.
The Industrial Production Index consists of three main components: mining with a relative importance of 83.6%, manufacturing with a relative importance of 15.2%, electricity with a relative importance of 0.7%, and finally water with a relative importance of 0.5%.
The Industrial Production index (IPI), for February 2018 amounted to 103.9 points, decreased by 2.5% compared to the previous month (January -2018), while it is increased by 2.0%, when compared to the corresponding month of 2017.
The analysis of the monthly IPI of the above activities is as follows:
1. “Mining”: The index of this sector showed a decrease by 1.9% compared to the previous month (January of 2018), as a result of the decrease in the quantities of crude oil and natural gas produced by 1.9%, and "Other mining and quarrying" by 3.0%. When compared to the corresponding month of the previous year (February 2017), the IPI of Mining increased by 1.4%.
2. “Manufacturing”: A decrease of 5.3% is recorded in February 2018 compared to the previous month (January -2018), and that was due to the decrease in production of seven groups: “Manufacture of basic metals” by 7.8%, “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 6.7%,“Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 6.6%,“Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 4.4%, “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 2.5% “Manufacture of beverages” by 1.8%, “Manufacture of food products” by 1.0% . However an increase was recorded in “Manufacture of refined petroleum products " by 1.2%.
On the other hand, in terms of annual change, comparing to February 2017, an increase of 5.7% was recorded, affected by the following groups: “Manufacture of food products” by 27.2%, “Manufacture of rubber and plastics products” by 16.2%, “Manufacture of refined petroleum products” by 10.1%, "Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” by 6.6%, “Manufacture of beverages” by 5.1%,“Printing and reproduction of recorded media” by 3.6%. However a decline recorded in, “Manufacture of basic metals” by 4.8%, “Manufacture of Cement & other non-metallic mineral products” by 0.3%, .
3. “Electricity”: A decrease of 11.4% in the production of “Electricity” group between February 2018 and the previous month (January -2018), while the annual increase ( comparing with February 2017), was 5.5%.
4. “Water” : When comparing February 2018 with the previous month, a decrease of 7.8% was noticed, and a decrease of 3.8 % was recorded when comparing with corresponding month(February 2017) in the previous year.
