Mubasher: Qatar’s industrial product price index (CPI) jumped 19.2% in March 2018, compared to the same month a year before.
The CPI hit 65.9 points in the third month of the year, up from 55.3 in March 2017, the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) said on Thursday.
The Qatari CPI includes three main sectors, namely mining which represents 72.7% of CPI’s value, manufacturing industry with 26.8%, and electricity and water with 0.5%.
The growth was attributed to an increase by 23.3% in mining prices, due to a 23.3% rise in crude oil and natural gas, followed by an 11.9% jump in the manufacturing industry group after prices of refining oil products levelled up 13.1%.
While the electricity and water group rose 6.4% backed by a 12.2% jump in prices of electricity, whereas water prices decreased 1.8%.
Month-on-month, the Qatari CPI inched down 0.3% from 66.1 points in February.
The ministry ascribed the monthly decline to a 0.5% drop in mining prices, whereas the prices of manufacturing industries and electricity and water edged up 0.1% and 0.6%, respectively.
