RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Production Index grew by 26.7 percent in April 2022 compared to the same month of last year, according to the General Authority for Statistics, also known as GASTAT.

The positive growth, which is the highest since January 2019, is driven by higher production in its two main sub-sectors — mining and quarrying and manufacturing.

As the dominant sector in the index, mining and quarrying took 74.5 percent of the weight in the general IPI, while the manufacturing and electricity and gas supply sectors took 22.6 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively.

Mining and quarrying grew by 28.3 percent in April compared to the same period last year as Saudi Arabia increased its oil production to its highest level by more than 10 million barrels per day in April 2022, according to GASTAT.

The Kingdom’s crude oil output increased to 10.441 million barrels per day, up from 10.3 million bpd in March, a recent report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries showed. 

This is the highest month-on-month increase since July 2021. On an annual basis, crude output increased by 28.4 percent in April or by 2.31 million bpd, data from Joint Organizations Data Initiative revealed.

The manufacturing activity also increased by 25.1 percent compared to the same month last year, driven by the recovery of international trade, the report said.

The electricity and gas supplies decreased by 2 percent after six months of recording positive growth, but having the lowest weight in the general IPI, this decrease did not have much impact on the index.

Compared to the previous month, the overall IPI increased by 0.5 percent, according to GASTAT, with mining and quarrying showing month-on-month growth of 1.3 percent. On the other hand, the manufacturing index experienced a decline (-2 percent) for the first time since September 2021.