RIYADH: Saudi industrial production growth reached 10.3 percent in November from a year ago, nearing the three-year high level it hit in June, on higher oil production output, Gastat said.
This expansion was under last June’s figure, when growth stood at 11.9 percent.
Industrial production continued its positive trend for the seventh consecutive month.
This reversed the contractions experienced in 2020, which were induced by COVID-19. The Industrial Production Index, or IPI, is now back to pre-pandemic levels, the Kingdom’s official statistics authority revealed.
Production in the mining and quarrying sub-sector — which has a weight of 74.5 percent of the index — expanded by a yearly rate of 10.4 percent in November. This is the highest level of the sub-index since October 2019.
Moreover, Saudi manufacturing output was 9.7 percent higher from a year earlier, reaching the largest reading since February 2020.
Similarly, electricity and gas supplies surged by 11.9 percent, which corresponded to the second consecutive expansion.
Manufacturing and ‘electricity and gas supplies’ make up 22.6 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, of IPI.
In monthly terms, industrial production rose by 2 percent in November, driven by a 6 percent expansion in manufacturing. Mining and quarrying ticked up by 1.2 percent from a month ago while electricity and gas supplies narrowed by 9.6 percent.
