ISLAMABAD: Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) posted a paltry year-on-year growth of 0.92 per cent in February, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

The growth in the industrial output has witnessed a decelerated trend in the past couple of months, largely because of supply-side bottlenecks.

The nominal growth was led by lacklustre performance of sub-sectors like textile, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The sectors which witnessed negative growths included petroleum products, leather products, rubber products, food, beverages and tobacco, paper and board, engineering products and wood products.

The LSM sector posted a growth of 1.14pc in the first month (July 2014) of this fiscal year. The growth rebounded to 5.27pc in August 2014. The growth in September and October was 1.82pc, which is much lower as compared to the previous month of August.

The sector’s growth has been in decline since November, but the government has yet to take any measures to turn the situation around. Last year, large-scale manufacturing, which accounts for 70pc of industrial production, grew by 3.95pc.

In electronic and electrical goods, production of refrigerators in February recorded a positive growth of 23.83pc; electric meters 167.73pc, switch gears 5.46pc, electric transformers 105.19pc, TV sets 2.81pc, and storage batteries 49.17pc. However, the production of deep freezers declined by 12.03pc; air conditioners 35.02pc; electric bulbs 8.31pc; electric fans 1.26pc; electric motors 1.78pc; and bicycles 15.38pc.

In the food sector, a fall of 0.31pc was witnessed in vegetable ghee production during the month under review. However, the production of tea rose by 18.53pc and cooking oil production by 0.72pc.

As for the automobile sector, which provides jobs in large numbers, the production of trucks surged by 13pc, tractors 253pc, jeep and cars 16.04pc, and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) by 72.14pc. However, production of buses fell by 40pc and motorcycles by 3.22pc.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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