Doha                                                                                                                                                                                                    30 Jan 2018                                                                                                                                                                                        (QNA)

The Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for December 2017 is estimated at 62.4 points showing an increase of 2.5% compared to the previous month's November 2017, PPI of December, 2017 showed a rise of 17.0% when compared to the PPI of December 2016.

The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) released the Monthly Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Industrial sector for December 2017 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%).

The PPI of December, 2017 showed an increase of 3.7% when compared with PPI of November 2017, primarily due to the increase of prices of "Crude petroleum and natural gas" with 3.7%. PPI of December 2017, when compared with its counterpart in the previous year (December 2016), there has been a considerable increase of 15.4%.

An increase of 0.2% has been recorded in December, 2017, when compared with the previous months Manufacturing index during this year. The prices increase are seen in: "Juices" by 11.0%, "Paper and Paper products" by 3.5%, "Cement and Other non-metallic products" by 1.8%, "Refined Petroleum Products" by 1.5%, "Dairy products" by 0.6%," Grain mill and Other products" by 0.4%.

However, the decreasing prices are noticed in "Rubber and Plastics products" by 4.2%, "Basic Chemicals" by 3.3%,"Basic Metals" by 1.2%, "Beverages" by 0.3%, No monthly change noticed in "Other chemical products and fibers".

Comparing with the index of counterpart in the previous year (December 2016), "Manufacturing" PPI of December, 2017 showed a rise of 20.5%. The major groups which explain this price increase are "Refined Petroleum Products" by 26.9%,"Basic Metals" by 20.7%,"Basic Chemicals" by 10.3%, "Other chemical products and fibers" by 5.3%, "Dairy products" by 4.4%,"Rubber and Plastics products" by 2.1%, "Grain mill and Other products" by 1.6%, and "Juices" by 0.7%.

However, prices fall also noticed in "Cement and Other non-metallic products" by 5.7%," Beverages" by 2.3% "Paper and Paper Products" by 1.7%.

The PPI of this group showed a increase of 6.9% compared to November 2017, resulting from a increasing price seen in "Electricity" by 10.8%, and an increasing in "Water" by 1.7%.

When compared the PPI of December, 2017, to the PPI of December, 2016, showed an increase Y-o-Y of 10.8%, affected by a rise in both "Electricity" by 13.2% and "Water" by 7.5%.