Saudi IPI declines for 3rd month in July

Production line in a factory

Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Production Index (IPI) fell by 9.8% year-on-year (YoY) in July, continuing its decline for the third month in a row.

Data issued by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) showed that Saudi IPI retreated to 122.03 points in July, according to the base year 2010, compared to 135.23 points in the year-ago period.

The decline in IPI is the largest since April 2021, when it recorded a decline of 24%.

The manufacturing activity and the electricity and gas supply activity continued to rise. However, the decrease in the mining and quarrying activity in July contributed to the decline in the general index, due to its high weight in the index, GASTAT said.

The IPI measures the relative change and reflects the production quantities of materials and goods, which have been converted from raw materials to consumables in their final form as goods, for the purpose of achieving a monetary return.

The following table shows the development of the index:

The mining and quarrying activity dropped by 16.7% YoY as the Kingdom’s oil production was cut to 9 million barrels per day in July.

The manufacturing activity maintained growth, jumping 8.7% YoY. The electricity and gas supply activity also saw an increase of 12.3% YoY.

The following table shows IPI value by activity: