The overall monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of Qatar’s industrial sector for March 2021 was estimated at 60.8 points, showing an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the previous month’s PPI (February 2021).
When compared on year-onyear (Y-o-Y) basis, the PPI of March 2021 showed an increase of 23.6 percent against PPI of the corresponding month last year (March 2020), official data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
The Mining sector PPI registered an increase of 4.5 percent in March 2021 compared with the PPI of February 2021, primarily due to the price increase of “Crude petroleum and natural gas” by 4.5 percent, and “Stone, Sand and Clay” increased by 0.1 percent.
PPI of March 2021, when compared with its counterpart in previous year (March 2020), there was an increase of 27.8 percent. In the Manufacturing sector index, an increase of 1.8 percent was recorded in March 2021, when compared with the previous month’s Manufacturing index (February 2021).
The prices increase were seen in: “Basic Metals” by 2.9 percent, followed by “Refined Petroleum products” by 1.8 percent, “Basic Chemicals” by 1.7 percent, “Dairy products” by 0.6 percent, and “Grain mill and Other products” by 0.3 percent.
However, the decreasing prices were noticed in “Rubber and Plastics products” by 2.6 percent, “Cement and Other nonmetallic products” by 0.8 percent, and “Beverages” by 0.2 percent. No change was noticed in “Juices”, “Paper and Paper products”, and “Other chemical products and fibers”.
When compared with the previous year’s (March 2020) index, the Manufacturing PPI of March 2021 showed an increase of 15.7 percent. The major groups which explain this price increase were: “Basic chemicals” by 26.4 percent, followed by “Basic Metals” by 15.7 percent, “Refined Petroleum products” by 15.3 percent, “Paper and Paper Products” by 7.9 percent, “Juices” by 6.4 percent, and “Dairy products” by 1.1 percent.
However, prices decreased in “Cement and Other non-metallic products” by 10.1 percent, followed by “Grain mill and Other products” by 1.5 percent, “Rubber and Plastics products” by 1.0 percent, “Other chemical products and fibers” by 0.8 percent, and “Beverages” by 0.2 percent.
The PPI of Electricity and Water group showed a decrease of 6.4 percent compared to February 2021, resulting from fall prices in “Electricity” by 8.9 percent, and “Water” by 3.0 percent.
When compared the PPI of March 2021, to the PPI of March 2020 (Y-o-Y), showed an increase of 7.7 percent, affected by prices rise in “Water” by 15.2 percent, and “Electricity” by 2.7 percent.
