Producer Price Index of Industrial sector: Q1, 2012

Doha, June 27 (QNA) - Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) has issued the Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for the first quarter (Q1) of 2012. The Industrial sector covers Mining, Electricity& Water and Manufacturing. Comparison with previous quarter Q4-2011: The PPI for Q1, 2012 stood at 177.5 showing a rise of 8.6% when compared to the PPI of fourth quarter Q4, 2011. This reason is due to the combined result increasing in the three sectors. More details on the changes at industry group/product group level are discussed below: In the "Mining" group, the 8.7% rise in PPI is mainly explained by higher PPI seen in Condensate produced by the oil extraction 11.7%, Condensate produced by the gas extraction 9.0%, Crude oil 8.8% and Natural gas 8.3%. The increase of 8.7% in "Manufacturing" group PPI is contributed by the increase in the following groups: Refined petroleum products 13.9% and Basic chemicals products 3.5%. However, decline was noticed in Metal products 2.9%, Cements and Glass products 1.8%, and in Beverages products 0.3%. Moreover, because the importance of the aluminum products, it is been added recently to the manufacturing group. "Electricity & Water group" PPI showed an increase of 2.3%. The electrical energy reported as the main reason for the increase. Comparison with the corresponding quarter (Q1) of 2011: The sharp rise of 19.5% in PPI of Q1,2012 over Q1,2011 (year-on-year comparison) is attributable to increases in indices of "Mining" 22.8% and "Manufacturing" 7.9%. The steep increase in "Mining" Group PPI is mainly due to the hikes noticed in Natural gas 36.8%, Condensate produced by the oil extraction 29.6%, Crude oil 17.4%,and Condensate produced by the gas extraction 13.9%. "Manufacturing" group PPI increased by 7.9%. While the Refined petroleum products, Dairy products, and Metal products in this period went up by 12.5%, 6.9% and 4.2% respectively, the Grain products, Cement & Glass products and Beverages products showed declining trend of 4.8%,1.3% and 0.1% respectively. "Electricity & Water" group in PPI showed a rise of 0.5%.(QNA)