ISLAMABAD: The country’s large-scale manufacturing—such as the production of textiles, autos and medicines—grew 16.7 per cent month-on-month in December with the base year 2005-06, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday.

However, the growth came in at 3.8pc in December on a year-on-year basis, ie when compared to the same month a year ago.

During the first half (July to December) of the ongoing fiscal year, large-scale manufacturing grew 3.4pc compared to the same period a year ago.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the provisional quantum indices of large-scale manufacturing industries have been developed based on the latest data supplied by source agencies—ie Ministry of Industries and Production, provincial boards of statistics, and the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC).

Indexes monitored by the industries ministry showed the highest increase of 4.7pc during the half-yearly period, followed by a 1.3pc rise in indexes monitored by the provincial boards of statistics. In contrast, the OCAC-monitored indexes witnessed a decrease of 0.5pc.

The sectors whose production rose during the six months included textiles (1.1pc growth); food, beverages and tobacco (3.1pc); chemicals (5.4pc); automobiles (35.7pc); iron and steel products (23.9pc); leather products (8.3pc); paper and board (8.3pc); engineering products (1.1pc); and wood products (229.4pc).

The commodities whose production went down included non-metallic mineral products (down 0.5pc), fertilisers pharmaceuticals (0.7pc), non-metallic mineral products (0.6pc), fertilisers (3.9pc), electronics (6.2pc) and rubber products (28.3pc).

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2022