Riyadh: In the most recent General Authority for Statistics report, Saudi Arabia's Industrial Production Index increased 8.6 percent year on year in November 2022, primarily due to high production in mining and quarrying and manufacturing activities.

According to the report, mining and quarrying increased by 5.7 percent in November 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, as the Kingdom increased oil production to more than 10 million barrels in the month.

manufacturing activities in the Kingdom increased by 19.7 percent year on year in November, while electricity and gas supplies decreased by 10.9 percent.

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The IPI's relative weights for mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and electricity and gas supply are 74.5 percent, 22.6 percent, and 2.9 percent, respectively. As a result, the trend of the industrial production index in the mining and quarrying sector dominates the trend of the overall IPI, according to GASTAT's report.

Saudi Arabia's IPI became positive in May 2021 and has been steadily increasing since then. This improvement comes after negative trends in 2019 and 2020 as a result of the pandemic's effects.

"Since mid-2021, IPI growth has shown a positive trend, accelerating at the end of 2021 and continuing to grow by double digits in 2022," according to GASTAT's report.

GASTAT defines IPI as an economic indicator that reflects changes in the volume of industrial output.

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According to the report, overall IPI fell by 3% in November 2022 compared to October, with mining and quarrying activities falling by 4.5 percent.

IPI in the manufacturing sector increased by 3% in November, while electricity and gas supplies decreased by 18%.

Even though Saudi Arabia's IPI remains positive, growth has slowed for the seventh month in a row from a year-on-year increase of 26.7 in April 2022.

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It should also be noted that the Kingdom's IPI growth in November was the slowest in 2022, falling short of the 11.1 percent year-on-year growth recorded in January of last year.