ISLAMABAD: Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) witnessed a paltry growth of 2.35 per cent year-on-year in December 2014.

The industrial production recorded sluggish growth in September and October 2014, but rebounded in November to 4.89pc, suggested data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

However, the big manufacturing sector posted a growth of 2.65pc year-on-year during the first six months (July-Dec) of 2014-15.Increased production in eleven sub-sectors led by iron and steel products (66.01pc) followed by leather products (30.2pc), paper and board (18.79pc), electronics (17.48pc), automobiles (11.11pc), pharmaceuticals (9.38pc), non-metallic mineral products (3.62pc), chemicals (1.48pc), rubber products (0.56pc), fertiliser (3.63pc) and textile (0.24pc) contributed to positive LSM growth in Dec 2014.

However, petroleum products dipped by 4.77pc, food and beverages 5.83pc, engineering products 15.17pc and wood products 60.33pc during the month under review.

Industry-specific data showed that some sub-sectors didn’t perform well in December 2014 over the corresponding month of last year.

Vegetable ghee output recorded a negative growth of 1.74pc during the month under review but cooking oil and tea production was up 17.23pc and 14.33pc, respectively.In electronics and electrical goods, production of refrigerators recorded a growth of 17.60pc; deep-freezers 91.45pc; electric bulbs 6.03pc; electric fans 25.13pc; electric meters 33.85pc; electric transformers 163.26pc; and storage batteries 34.48pc.

However, the production of air-conditioners declined by 40.51pc; electric motors 0.52pc; switch gears 3.46pc; TV sets 1.95pc and bicycles 23.41pc during Dec 2014.

In automobile sector, the production of trucks was up by 25.35pc; buses 133.33pc, jeep and cars 28.77pc; and LCVs 39.43pc in December 2014 over the same month last year. However, the production of motorcycles was down by 6.20pc and tractors 26.29pc.

Published in Dawn February 26th , 2015

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