Arab News, Saturday, May 13, 2023 | Shawwal 23, 1444
Saudi Arabia’s industrial production index rises 4.1% in March 2023: GASTAT
Saudi Arabia:
High production in mining, quarrying and
manufacturing helped deliver a 4.1 percent year-on-year rise in Saudi Arabia’s
industrial output volume, according to the latest report from the General
Authority for Statistics.
The authority noted that mining and quarrying grew
by 1.6 percent in March 2023, compared to the same period last year, while the
Kingdom increased its oil production to more than 10 million barrels per day in
March.
Besides the year-on-year increase, March’s
Industrial Production Index was 6 percent up on the previous month.
The increase in mining output comes as Saudi
Arabia aims to transform the sector into the third pillar of the national
industry and utilize the Kingdom’s wealth valued at around SR5 trillion ($1.3
trillion) under Saudi Vision 2030.
“Relative weights of the mining and quarrying,
manufacturing, and electricity and gas supply sectors in the IPI are 74.5
percent, 22.6 percent, and 2.9 percent, respectively. Thus, the trend of the
industrial production index in the mining and quarrying sector dominates the
trend in the general IPI,” GASTAT said in the report.
Compared to the same month last year,
manufacturing activity climbed by 10.5 percent and gas and electricity supplies
rose by 16.6 percent.
Saudi Arabia’s IPI went positive in May 2021 and
has been steadily increasing since then. This improvement follows poor trends in
2019 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IPI is an economic indicator that indicates the
relative changes in industrial output volume. It is calculated using data from
an industrial production survey.
After reaching a 26.7 percent year-on-year growth
in April 2022, the Kingdom’s growth has slowed for 11 consecutive months.