Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for May 2020 with the base year 2013. Producer price index covers goods relating to “Mining” (weight: 72.7%), “Manufacturing” (weight: 26.8%), and “Electricity & Water” (weight: 0.5%). 

Mining

The PPI of May, 2020 for this sector showed a decrease by 7.1 % when compared with PPI of April 2019, primarily due to the price decline  of “Crude petroleum and natural gas” by 6.8%. PPI of May 2020, when compared with its counterpart in previous year (May 2019), there was a decrease of 53.5%. 

Manufacturing

A decrease of 1.5% has been recorded in May  2020, when compared with the previous month’s Manufacturing index (April, 2020). The prices decrease are seen in: “Refined Petroleum products” by 4.3%, followed  by “Rubber and Plastics products” by 3.0%, “Grain mill and Other products” by 0.8%, “Other chemical products and fibers” by 0.4%. However, the increasing prices are noticed in “Basic Metals” by 3.5%, “Cement and Other non-metallic products” by 1.3%, “Dairy products” and “Basic Chemicals" by 1.1% each, and “Beverages” by 0.4%, No changes noticed in “Juices”, and “Paper and Paper products”.

 

Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (May 2019), “Manufacturing” PPI of May 2020 showed a decrease of 32.0%. The major groups which explain this price fall are: “Refined Petroleum products” by 42.4%, followed by “Basic chemicals” by 22.3%, "Rubber and Plastics products” by 8.9%, “Basic Metals” by 3.8%, “Other chemical products and fibers” by 1.9%, and “Beverages” by 1.2%. However, prices increased in by “Paper and Paper Products” by 3.0 %, followed by "Juices" by 2.6%, “Dairy products” by 1.5%, “Grain mill and Other products” by 0.3%, and "Cement and Other non-metallic products” 0.1%.

  

Electricity and Water

The PPI of this group showed a decrease of 0.7% compared to April  2020, resulting from the decreasing in “Electricity”  by 6.7%, and increasing in “Water”  by 7.7%. When compared the PPI of May, 2020, to the PPI of May, 2019  [Y-o-Y], showed a decrease of 8.6%, affected by  prices fall in “Electricity”  by 10.0%, and “Water” by 6.9%.

Overall Index (PPI of Industrial sector)

The PPI for May,2020 is estimated at 34.2 points showing a decrease of 4.7%, when compared to the previous month’s April, 2020. On [Y-o-Y] basis, PPI of May, 2020 showed a decrease  of 46.2% when compared to the PPI of May,2019.