ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector has witnessed growth of 1.95 percent during the first four months of current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The provisional Quantum Index Numbers (QIM) of large scale manufacturing industries was recorded at 149.22 points during July-October (2014-15) against 143.82 points during July-October (2013-14), according the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The highest growth of 4.86 percent was witnessed in the indices of Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) followed by Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBOS), which increased by 3.76 and the indices of ministry of Industries witnessed a growth of 0.87 percent. On year-to-year basis, the industrial growth increased by 1.82 percent during October 2014 as compared to October 2013 while on month-to-month basis,the industrial growth decreased by 1.57 percent during October 2014 when compared to growth of September 2014, the data revealed.
Meanwhile, the major sectors that showed growth during July-October (2014-15) included textile (0.79 percent), food beverages and tobacco (1.32 percent), coke and petroleum products (6.06 percent), electronics (8.86 percent), coke and petroleum products (6.06 percent), iron and steel products (16.68 percent), chemicals (6.15 percent), non metallic mineral products (1.23 percent), engineering products (4.69 percent), pharmaceuticals (2.88 percent), rubber products (4.74 percent), automobile (12.10 percent) and leather products (2.30 percent).
On the other hand, the LSM industries that witnessed negative growth, included wood products, production of which decreased by 79.84 percent during the period under review while the output of engineering products decreased by 4.22 percent and growth of paper and board also decreased by 0.65 percent. The provisional QIM is being computed on the basis of the latest production data of 112 items received from sources including Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC), Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) and Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBoS). OCAC provides data of 11 items, MoIP of 36 items while PBoS proved data of remaining 65 items. Tax collection, GDP growth rate and foreign exchange reserves and industrial growth were moving up, while the inflation was going down.
