Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia's industrial production index (IPI) advanced by 7.04% year-on-year (YoY) in April 2020, according to the monthly report of the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).
The rise in industrial production is mainly driven by a 22.5% growth in the mining and quarrying production activity, including oil production.
Lending further support to this was Saudi Arabia’s oil production hike to 12 million barrels per day (b/d) in April from 9.7 million b/d in March.
The manufacturing activity and the electricity and water supply activity tumbled by 32.1% and 14.6%, respectively, as factories limited production operations due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The IPI is a volume index and does not reflect changes in oil prices, GaStat emphasised in its report.
Month-on-month (MoM), industrial production is the kingdom went up by 11.35% in April, largely due to a 23.3% increase in the mining and quarrying activity.
In March 2020, the IPI saw a 3.29% decline on an annual basis.
