The Planning & Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Machinery & Equipment Price Index (MEPI) for the second half 2023, Which reached 99.93 points, increase by 0.49% compared with the first half of 2023, and a 1.62% increase of MEPI, when compared with the counterpart of the previous year 2022. The MEPI is one the economic indicators produced by the Authority, which is calculated using 2018 as a base year instead of 2013, to contribute with other statistical indicators for studying and analysing the economic level of the state. This index aims to measure of the average change in the selling prices of machinery and equipment, which are categorized as capital goods, by selecting a given basket of goods and monitoring their prices over subsequent periods of time with respect to that in a previous and fixed period called the base period.

 

The value of imports is used to calculate the relative weight for each MEPI groups, and international standards are considered and followed in a data collections and index dissemination.  MEPI basket contents of nine main groups, their weight disaggregated.

The data of machinery and equipment prices are collected from key and specified sources to be comparable for different periods of time. They are collected on a semi-annual basis in January and July of each year. On average of 367 quotations are collected from a sample that includes 67 establishments. All data are collected through direct contact or electronic collection from different sources.

An analysis on [H-o-H basis] of MEPI [second half, 2023 against first half, 2023] shows that five of the main groups were increased namely: “Medical appliances precision and optical” by 3.39%, “Metal tools and tools” by 2.08%,“Transport” by 1.48%,  “Machinery and electrical appliances” by 1.32%, “General, purpose “machinery” by 0.41%. A decrease recorded in “Radio, television and communication equipment” by 3.71%, “Musical instruments” by 2.54%, “Office, accounting and computing machinery” by 0.90%, and last “Special-purpose machines” by 0.07%.

A comparison of the MEPI of second half, 2023 with the second half, 2022, showed that, there has been an increase by 1.62%, affected by prices rise in groups, namely: “Machinery and electrical appliances” by 12.60%, “Transport” by 8.53%,“Medical appliances precision and optical” by 4.58%, “Special-purpose machines” by 4.42%,  “Office, accounting and computing machinery” by 3.20%. As for decrease, it was recorded in four groups as follow: “General, purpose machinery” by 8.14%, “Musical instruments” by 5.67%, “Metal tools and tools” by 1.47%, “Radio, television and communication equipment” by 1.0%. 

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