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• General PPI of March  2019, decreased by 1.9% when compared with previous month (M-O-M).
• General PPI of March  2019, decreased by 0.3% when compared with March,2018 (Y-O-Y).
• PPI of Crude Petroleum and Natural gas production decreased by 3.7%, comparing with previous month.
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Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) has released the Monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for March,2019 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 March, 2019 for this sector showed a decrease by 3.6% when compared with PPI of February 2019, primarily due to the decrease of “Crude petroleum and natural gas” prices by 3.7%. PPI of March  2019, when compared with its counterpart in previous year (March 2018), there has been an increase of 2.1%. Graph (1) showed the monthly movement of “Mining” index during March  2018 and March  2019 .

Manufacturing
An increase of 2.2% has been recorded in March  2019, when compared with the previous month’s Manufacturing index (February,2019). The prices increase are seen in: “Refined Petroleum products” by 3.8%, “Other chemical products and fibers” by 1.6%, and “Rubber and Plastics products”  by 0.4%. However, the decreasing prices are noticed in: “Cement and Other non-metallic products” by 0.8%,  “Basic Chemicals" by 0.5%, “Basic Metals” by 0.4%, “Grain mill and Other products” by 0.3%, “Beverages” by 0.2%. No change noticed  in : “Dairy products”, “Juices”, "Paper and Paper products ”.
 

Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (March 2018), “Manufacturing” PPI of March, 2019 showed  a decrease of  5.6%. The major groups which explain this price fall are: “Basic Metals” by 13.9%, “Basic chemicals” by 6.7%, “Refined Petroleum products” by 4.2%, "Cement and Other non-metallic products” 3.7%, “Grain mill and Other products” by 0.2%.
However,  prices increased in “Other chemical products and fibers” by 9.0%, followed by "Juices" by 5.2%,  "Rubber and Plastics products” by 2.8%, “Paper and Paper Products” by 2.6%, “Dairy products” by 1.7%, and “Beverages” by 0.6%.

Electricity and Water
The PPI of this group showed an increase of 4.5% compared to February 2019, resulting from the increasing price in “Water” by 8.9%, and “Electricity” by 1.6%. When compared the PPI of  March, 2019 to the PPI of March,2018  [Y-o-Y], showed an increase of 11.1%, affected by  prices rise in “Water” by 23.3%, and “Electricity” by 3.7%.

Overall Index (PPI of Industrial sector)
The PPI for March,2019  is estimated  at  65.7 points showing  a decrease by 1.9% when compared to the previous month’s February,2018. On [Y-o-Y] basis, PPI of March,2019 showed  a  decrease of 0.3% when compared to the PPI of March,2018.

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