DOHA: The monthly Producer Price Index for April, 2018 was estimated at 67.6 points showing an increase by 2.6 percent, when compared to the previous month’s March 2018.
When compared on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, PPI of April, 2018 showed a rise of 24.3 percent compared to the PPI of April 2017, according to data released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS).
The PPI of the Industrial sector for April 2018 was calculated at the base year prices of 2013. Producer price index covers goods relating to “Mining” (weight:72.7 percent), “Manufacturing” (weight: 26.8 percent), and “Electricity & Water” (weight: 0.5 percent).
The Mining sector PPI of April, 2018 showed an increase of 3.9 percent when compared with PPI of March 2017, primarily due to the increase of prices of “Crude petroleum and natural gas” with 3.9 percent. PPI of April 2018, when compared with its counterpart in the previous year (April 2017), there has been a considerable increase of 31.1 percent.
The Manufacturing sector index decreased by 0.5 percent has been recorded in April, 2018, when compared with the previous month’s Manufacturing index (March,2018).
The prices decrease are seen in: “Basic Chemicals” by 3.5 percent, “Basic Metals” by 1.6 percent, “Dairy products”, “Beverages”, and “ Cement and Other non-metallic products” by 0.1 percent, for each.
However, the increasing prices are noticed in “Rubber and Plastics products” by 3.1 percent, “Juices” and “Paper and Paper Products” by 1.0 percent for each, “Refined Petroleum Products” by 0.7 percent, “Other chemical products and fibers” by 0.6 percent, “Grain mill and Other products” by 0.1 percent.
Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (April 2017), “Manufacturing” PPI of April, 2018 showed a rise of 12.0 percent.
The major groups which explain this price increase are “Basic Metals” by 20.1 percent, followed by “Refined Petroleum products” by 15.6 percent, “Other chemical products and fibers” by 14.9 percent, “Dairy products” by 13.7 percent, “Paper and Paper Products” by 11.9 percent “Basic Chemicals” by 2.9 percent, “Grain mill and Other products” by 2.0 percent, “Juices” by 1.5 percent, and “ Rubber and Plastics products” by 1.1 percent.
However, prices fall was also noticed in, “Cement and Other non-metallic products” by 5.7 percent and “Beverages” by 1.6 percent.
The Electricity and Water sector’s PPI showed a decrease of 0.9 percent compared to March 2018, resulting from a decreasing price with “Electricity” by 6.8 percent, and an increasing in “Water” by 9.2 percent.
When compared the PPI of April, 2018, to the PPI of April, 2017, showed an increase (Y-o-Y) of 6.1 percent, affected by a rise in “Electricity” by 6.7 percent and “Water” by 5.2 percent.
