Industrial production grows in Q4

The local industrial production index (IIP) reached 102.9 for the fourth quarter of 2016, a surge of 31.1 per cent year-on-year, as the production of the manufacturing industry and that of the energy sector both recorded increases.
According to the latest official data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the production index for electricity, gas and water supply for the quarter grew by nearly 50 per cent compared to one year earlier, to 97.
In particular, the production index for electricity surged by 59.7 per cent year-on-year to 93.1 although that of water supply only registered a mild increase of 3.1 per cent year-on-year to 128.2.
Meanwhile, the production index of the city’s manufacturing industry rose by 13.4 per cent year-on-year to 110.7, driven by a 35.8 per cent hike in the production index for the manufacture of food products & beverages.
However, the city saw the manufacture of tobacco, wearing apparel and other non-metallic mineral products go down, with their production indexes declining by 14.9 per cent, 81.3 per cent and 35.6 per cent year-on-year, respectively.
On a quarter-to-quarter comparison, the general industrial production index of the MSAR grew by 4.8 per cent, boosted by a 16.4 per cent growth in that of electricity. However, the production index of the manufacturing industry fell by 3.7 per cent on average from the third quarter of 2016