Qatar industrial production treads flat path in October.

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Qatar's industrial production treaded a flat path in October 2018 on a yearly basis despite expansion in the manufacturing sector, according to official estimates. The country's Industrial Production Index (IPI) showed a marginal 0.3% decline month-on-month in October this year, said the figures released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS). The ministry introduced IPI, a short-term quantitative index that measures the changes in the volume of production of a selected basket of industrial products over a given period with respect to a base period 2013. The mining and quarrying index, which has a relative weight of 83.6%, saw a marginal 0.1% rise year-on-year in October 2018 owing to a 2% increase in other mining and quarrying and 0.1% in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas. On a monthly basis, the index showed a 1.1% dip as the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas contracted 1.1%; even as other mining and quarrying grew 1.1%. The manufacturing index, with a relative weight of 15.2%, showed a 0.3% increase year-on-year this October on account of a 10.3% expansion in the manufacture of basic metals, 7.8% in the production of beverages, 2.9% in the manufacture of rubber and plastics products and 1.8% in refined petroleum products. Nevertheless, there was a 9.6% decline in the printing and reproduction of recorded media, 3.7% in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 1.2% in chemicals and chemical products and 0.8% in food products. On a monthly basis, the manufacturing index saw a 2.3% surge on 6.2% growth in the manufacture of cement and other non-metallic mineral products, 3.7% in food products, 2.6% in refined petroleum products, 2.2% in chemicals and chemical products, 0.8% in rubber and plastics products, 0.7% in basic metals and 0.1% in beverages; whereas there was a 0.8% fall in printing and reproduction of recorded media. Electricity, which has 0.7% weight in the IPI basket, saw 2.5% and 8% declines on yearly and monthly basis respectively and in the case of water, which has a 0.5% weight, there was 15.5% and 2% falls on yearly and monthly basis.

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