ISLAMABAD: Energy shortage continues to hampering industrial and economic growth as current data revealed that the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector grew by merely 1.95 percent during the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year 2014-15 against the corresponding period of last year.
According data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the Quantum Index Number (QIN) of LSM industries stood at 113.95 points during first four months of the ongoing fiscal year 2014-15 as compared to 111.77 points of the preceding year, registering an increase of 1.86 per cent.
It said that the industrial sector failed to show handsome growth during the ongoing financial year due to the worst power crisis in the country. The Data showed that in July 2014 the LSM grew by 1.14 percent that rebounded to 5.27 percent in August and 1.82 percent expansion was recorded in September. Meanwhile, it has posted growth of 1.82 percent in October.
The industry witnessed grew by 1.95 percent due to growth in 12 categories of items in the month under review over the corresponding month of last year.
According to the PBS figures, major contribution towards positive growth in LSM performance in July-October 2014 was from textile 0.79 percent; food and beverages 1.32 percent; coke and petroleum products, 6.06 percent, electronics 8.86 percent, iron and steel products 16.68 percent, chemicals 6.15 percent, non-metallic mineral products 1.23 percent, rubber products 4.74 percent, engineering products 2.11 percent, pharmaceuticals 2.88 percent, automobiles 12.1 percent and leather products 2.3 percent.
However, some sector like wood products had shown negative growth of 79.84 percent, fertilizers 4.22 percent and paper and board 0.65 percent during the period under review.
In electronic and electrical goods, production of refrigerators recorded a positive growth of 11.07 percent; electric fans 2.59 percent, electric meters, 59.34 percent, electric transformers 181.25 percent, TV sets, 7.87 percent, storage batteries 7.69 percent and bicycles 20.67 percent during July-October period.
However, the production of deep-freezers declined by 9.58 percent; air-conditions 1.27 percent, electric bulbs 17.36 percent; electric motors 3.55 percent; switch gears 15.72 percent during the period under review over the same period last year.
In automobile sector, the production of trucks was up by 97.5 percent; tractors 60.60 percent; jeep and cars 14.09 percent; and motorcycles 1.35pc during July-October 2014 from the corresponding period of last year. However, production of buses was down by 30.2 percent and LCV’s 6.96 percent during the period.
