Large-scale manufacturing expands by 5.23pc

Islamabad: The large-scale manufacturing sector (LSM) posted an impressive growth of 5.23 per cent in first five months of this fiscal year.

The growth in LSM was mainly driven by 11 categories of items in the July-November period of 2013-14 over the corresponding period of last year, suggested data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics issued on Friday.

Major contribution towards positive growth was from textile 2.05pc, food and beverages 7.74pc, petroleum products 8.83pc, paper and board 19.55pc, fertilisers 32.82pc, electronics 18.88pc, iron and steel products 4.36pc, leather products 12.89pc, chemicals 3.20pc, non-metallic mineral products 0.14pc and rubber products 0.23pc.

Last year, the LSM sector, which accounts for 70pc of industrial production, recorded a positive growth of 3.79pc.

Some sectors, like wood products, witnessed a decline of 11.42pc, engineering products 23.51pc, automobiles 3.26pc, and pharmaceuticals 1.15 pc during the months under review.

Industry specific data showed that many sub-sectors didn’t perform well in July-Nov period of the current fiscal year over the last year.

In electronic and electrical goods, production of refrigerators recorded a growth of 11.76pc; deep-freezers was up by 122.41pc; air-conditioners 106.94; electric bulbs 27.235pc; electric motors 41.84pc; switch gears 103.69pc; TV sets 23.83pc and storage batteries 19.66 pc during the period under review over the same months last year.

The growth was witnessed in case of food, beverages and tobacco. The sector has adjusted weightage of 12.37pc in LSM basket.

Vegetable ghee production increased by 5.04pc; oil 7.23pc; and tea blended 2.03pc.

Another important sector was automobiles, but tractors production was down by 39.17pc, jeeps and cars production 0.32pc; motorcycles 0.27pc during the period under review over the last year.