Abu Dhabi's manufacturing industries PPI down 8.6 percent Y-O-Y in Q4 2014

Abu Dhabi, 8th April, 2015 (WAM) - Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (SCAD) issued yesterday its latest report on the Producer Price Index (PPI) – manufacturing industries- for the fourth quarter of 2014, using 2012 as the base year. PPI: Q4 2014 compared with Q4 2013 As SCAD’s report finds, the Producer Price Index declined 8.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter of 2013. The drop resulted from upward and downward changes in the economic sub-activities constituting the overall index. The key economic activity accounting for this drop was the ‘Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products’, which dropped by 19.9 percent and contributed 83.9 percent of the total decreased in the PPI. The second largest drop in the PPI was observed in the ‘Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment’ activity, which decreased by 17.7 percent, contributing 20 percent of the total drop. A range of other activities contributed to a smaller extent to the overall drop in the PPI during Q4 2014, including ‘Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products’ (down 8.1 percent), ‘Manufacture of rubber and plastics products’ activity (down 7.8 percent), ‘Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products’ (down 7.6 percent). The share of the aforesaid three activities in the overall drop in the PPI during Q$ 2014 was 15.9 percent, 1.2 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively. The remaining industries, categorised as ‘Other manufacturing’ activity decreased by 5.9 percent, contributing 0.1 percent of the total decrease of the overall index for Q4 2014. On the other hand the key activity that contributed to the rise in the producer price index, during the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the corresponding quarter in 2013 was the ‘Manufacture of other transport equipment’ activity which surged 64.9 percent, contributing a positive 21.4 percent to the overall change in the PPI during Q 2014. Likewise, the prices of the ‘Manufacture of furniture’ activity increased by 15.8 percent contributing +1.4 percent of the overall change. Prices of the ‘Manufacture of leather and related products’ activity increased by 12.4 percent contributing +0.1 percent of the Q4 2014 change in the general index. In addition, the producer price index of the ‘Printing and reproduction of recorded media’ activity increased by 5.7 percent, contributing +0.2 percent of the total change in PPI for Q4 2015, while the ‘Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c’ activity increased by 3.6 percent, contributing +0.2 percent. PPI: Q4/Q3 2014 The producer price index decreased by 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the third quarter of 2014, mainly due to a 24.5 percent fall in the producer price sub-index for the ‘Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment’. The prices of the ‘Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products’ decreased by 15.2 percent, while ‘Manufacture of chemicals, chemical products’, and ‘Manufacture of wearing apparel ’decreased by 6.0 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. Likewise, the prices of ‘Other manufacturing’ activities dropped by 3.4 percent overall. The price sub-index for the ‘Manufacture of other transport equipment’ activity advanced 18.9 percent, and similarly the ‘Manufacture of furniture’ and ‘Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers’ activities increased by 7.2 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, while ‘Manufacture of textiles’ and ‘Manufacture of electrical equipment’ activities increased by 0.1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. – Emirates News Agency, WAM –