RIYADH: High production in mining, quarrying and manufacturing helped deliver a 4.1 percent year-on-year rise in Saudi Arabia’s industrial output volume, according to the latest report from the General Authority for Statistics. The authority noted that mining and quarrying grew by 1.6 percent in March 2023, compared to the same period last year, while the Kingdom increased its oil production to more than 10 million barrels per day in March. FASTFACTS Mining and quarrying grew by 1.6 percent in March 2023, compared to the same period last year, while the Kingdom increased its oil production to more than 10 million barrels per day in March. Compared to the same month last year, manufacturing activity climbed by 10.5 percent and gas and electricity supplies rose by 16.6 percent. Besides the year-on-year increase, March’s Industrial Production Index was 6 percent up on the previous month. The increase in mining output comes as Saudi Arabia aims to transform the sector into the third pillar of the national industry and utilize the Kingdom’s wealth valued at around SR5 trillion ($1.3 trillion) under Saudi Vision 2030. “Relative weights of the mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and electricity and gas supply sectors in the IPI are 74.5 percent, 22.6 percent, and 2.9 percent, respectively. Thus, the trend of the industrial production index in the mining and quarrying sector dominates the trend in the general IPI,” GASTAT said in the report. Compared to the same month last year, manufacturing activity climbed by 10.5 percent and gas and electricity supplies rose by 16.6 percent. Saudi Arabia’s IPI went positive in May 2021 and has been steadily increasing since then. This improvement follows poor trends in 2019 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. IPI is an economic indicator that indicates the relative changes in industrial output volume. It is calculated using data from an industrial production survey. After reaching a 26.7 percent year-on-year growth in April 2022, the Kingdom’s growth has slowed for 11 consecutive months.