Pakistan’s Large-Scale Manufacturing Output Grows 1.84% in January

The overall Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector has shown a growth of -0.52 percent during the first seven months (July-January) 2023-24 when compared with the same period of last year, says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The Large-Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) output increased by 1.84 percent for January 2024 when compared with January 2023 and 0.03 percent when compared with December 2023. According to the provisional quantum index numbers of the large-scale manufacturing industries, the LSMI quantum index number (QIM) estimated for January 2024 is 132.43. QIM estimated for July-January, 2023-24 is 116.94. The provisional quantum indices of LSMI for January 2024 with base year 2015-16 have been developed on the basis of the latest data supplied by the source agencies. The main contributors towards overall growth of -0.52 percent are, food (0.38), beverages (0.12), tobacco (-0.82), textile (-1.90) garments (0.86), paper & board (-0.10), petroleum products (0.44), chemicals (0.46), pharmaceuticals (1.32), iron & steel products (-0.05), electrical equipment (-0.31), automobiles (-1.38) and furniture (0.31). The production in July-January 2023-24 as compared to July-January 2022-23 has increased in food, beverages, wearing apparel, coke & petroleum products, chemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, machinery and equipment and furniture while it decreased in tobacco, textile, paper & board, iron & steel products, electrical equipment, automobiles and other transport equipment. The sectors showing growth during July-January 2023-24 compared to July-January 2022-23 are food (2.26 percent), beverages (2.90 percent), wearing apparel (5.91 percent), leather products (4.40 percent), wood products (11.61 percent), coke and petroleum products (6.78 percent), chemicals (6.05 percent), chemicals products (-3.10 percent), fertilizers (12.59 percent), pharmaceuticals (29.50 percent), rubber products (1.62 percent), machinery and equipment (80.11 percent), furniture (11.58 percent) and other manufacturing (0.44 percent). The sectors showing decline during July-January 2023-24 compared to July-January 2022-23 are tobacco (40.48 percent), textile (10.41 percent), paper and board (4.40 percent), non-metallic mineral products (0.37 percent), iron and steel products (1.07 percent), fabricated metal (3.79 percent), computer, electronics and optical products (19.11 percent), electrical equipment (9.36 percent), automobiles (46.21 percent) and other transport equipment (14.06 percent).