Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) have released the Monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for February 2016 with the base year 2013. Producer price index covers goods relating to “Mining” (weight: 72.7%), “Electricity & Water” (weight: 0.5%) and “Manufacturing” (weight: 26.8%).

Mining
  The PPI of February, 2016 shows a fall of 5.4% when compared with PPI of January 2016, primarily due to the decreased in prices of “Crude petroleum and natural gas”.  PPI of February 2016, when compared with its counterpart in the previous year, there has been a significant fall of 43.6%. Figure (1) shows the movement of “Mining” index during February 2015 and February 2016.

Manufacturing
A decrease of 7.0% has been observed in February, 2016, when compared with the previous month’s Manufacturing index during this year. The decreasing prices are noticed in “Refined Petroleum Products” by 9.7%,  “Juices” by 8.3%, “Basic chemicals” by 6.5%, “Grain mill products” and “Rubber and plastics products” by 0.5% each.  However, the prices increase are seen in : Other chemical products” by 4.3%, “Dairy products” by 3.8%,“, “Beverages” by 1.9%, “Cement and other non-metallic products” by 0.9%, and ”Basic Metals” by 0.4%. No change noticed in  Paper and Paper Products.

Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (February 2015), “Manufacturing” PPI of February, 2016 showed a sharp decline of 24.3%. The major groups which explain this price fall are “Refined Petroleum Products” by 29.7%, ”Basic Metals” by 24.2%, “Basic chemicals” by 18.0%, Rubber and plastics products” by 2.5%, Grain mill products” by 1.4%, and “Dairy products” by 0.8% “. However, prices rise are also noticed in: “Cement and other non-metallic products” by 8.1%, “Juices” by 7.7%, “Other chemical products” by 5.2%, and “Beverages” by 1.3%. Figure (2) shows the graphical presentation of “Manufacturing” index during February, 2015-2016.

Electricity and water
The PPI of this group showed an increase of 0.2% compared to January 2016, resulting from the rising price seen in “Water” by 1.8% while  it decline  in “Electricity” by 0.8%. When compared the PPI of February, 2016, to the PPI of February, 2015, showed an increase [Y-o-Y] of 4.1%, resulting from the price rising in “Electricity” by 4.2% and  “Water” by 4.0%. 

Overall Index (PPI of Industrial sector)

 The PPI for February, 2016 is estimated at 42.3 points showing a decrease of 6.0% compared to the previous month’s January 2016, due to the decline that have been noticed in the “Mining (which includes crude oil and natural gas)” , “Manufacturing”, and  an increase in “Electricity and water”. On [Y-o-Y] basis, PPI of February, 2016 shows a steep fall of 37.6% when compared to the PPI of February 2015.

More details on monthly/annual comparison of indices are available in Table (1) and figures (3) and (4) of the Press Release.

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Further detailed data and indices would be available on the Ministry’s website, www.mdps.gov.qa and Qatar Information Exchange, www.qalm.gov.qa.