DOHA: The overall Producer Price Index (PPI) of the industrial sector for September, 2014 declined by 7.6 percent compared to the PPI of the same month last year, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics.
However, the monthly PPI for September, 2014 stood at 158.4 (Base Year 2006=100), which show a decrease of 3.4 percent over the PPI of August, 2014.
The indicator (PPI) is a measure of the average selling prices received by domestic producers for their output, which cover economic activities in various sectors, including “Mining”, “Electricity and Water” and “Manufacturing” industries.
When compared with August 2014, the breakdown of the overall PPI for September, 2014 by main groups show a decline of 4 percent in “Mining” group (with a weight of 77 percent), the decreasing price show up in Crude petroleum and natural gas by same percentage.
The index of the “Manufacturing” group (with a weight of 21 percent) show a negligible fall of 0.6 percent. The decreasing prices show up in Basic Chemicals by 1.9 percent, “Beverages” group by 1.4 percent, Refined Petroleum products by 0.5 percent, and “Cement and other “non-metallic products” groups by 0.2 percent. An increase is noticed in Dairy products by 3.6 percent, Basic metals by 2 percent, and “Grain mill and other products”, by 1.5 percent.
The PPI of “electricity and water” group (with 2 percent weight) show a decline of 0.2 percent, resulting from the effect of price fall seen in Electricity by 0.4 percent and rise in Water by 0.2 percent.
The “Mining” group PPI witnessed the highest fall of 8.8 percent, primarily due to the price decrease seen in “Crude petroleum and natural gas” by the same percentage. The “Manufacturing” group PPI shows a decline of 2.5 percent in September, 2014 compared to the PPI of September, 2013. The major groups which explain this price fall are “Refined Petroleum Products” by 4.9 percent and “Beverages” by 2.9 percent.
However, prices of “Dairy products” increased by 4.8 percent, “Cement and other non-metallic products” witnessed a rise of 1.8 percent, “Grain mill and other products” by 1.4 percent, “Basic chemicals” by 1.3 percent and “Basic Metals” by 0.8 percent. The PPI for “Electricity and Water” witnessed a decline of 4.5 percent, resulting from the effect of price fall seen in Electricity by 4.5 percent and Water by 1.6 percent.
The Peninsula
