LSM posts nominal growth in July

KARACHI: Large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector posted a marginal 0.50 percent year-on-year growth in the first month of the current fiscal year of 2018/19, yet it decently grew 6.99 percent compared to June, official data showed.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed that engineering products recorded the highest growth of 13.18 percent in July compared to the corresponding month a year earlier, followed by electronics (11.74pc), auto (9.75pc), rubber products (8.31pc), coke and petroleum products (6.14pc), paper and board (4.67pc), food, beverages and tobacco (3.24pc), leather products (1.19pc) and non-metallic mineral products (0.53pc).

The sectors, which recorded decline in production, included wood products (55.64pc), pharmaceuticals (10.8pc), fertilisers (6.81pc), iron and steel products (2.77pc), chemicals (2.44pc) and textile (0.50pc).

The National Economic Council set a highly-ambitious target of 8.1 percent for LSM, which accounts for 80 percent of the industry, for the current fiscal year.

LSM grew 5.38 percent during the last fiscal year of 2017/18, much below the annual target of 6.3 percent, as alone June depressing output militated against the progress made during the previous months.

Barring the provincial bureau of statistics, two other data collection authorities registered increase in production in July compared to the corresponding month a year ago. Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), logging outputs of 11 oil and petroleum products, measured 6.14 percent rise in outputs during the month. Ministry of industries, measuring output trend of 36 items, recorded a nominal 0.31 percent increase in output. Provincial bureau of statistics, counting production of 65 products, logged a 0.33 percent year-on-year decline in July.

The provincial bureau of statistics registered downward trend in production of vegetable ghee, cooking oil, tea, wheat and grain milling, juices, syrups and squash, woolen cloth, knitting wool, upper leather, ply wood, soaps and storage batteries in July compared to the same month a year earlier.

OCAC recorded double-digit growth in kerosene oil (84.6pc), liquefied petroleum gas (49.14pc), motor spirits (17.74pc), and diesel oil (12.16pc). Production of jet fuel, Jute batching oil, solvant naptha and petroleum products, however, fell year-on-year in July.

Ministry of industries recorded rise in auto production with buses (36.71pc), trucks (34.38pc), light commercial vehicles (15.59pc), jeeps and cars (13.06pc) and motorcycles (1.84pc). Production of nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers decreased 7.22 percent and 3.64 percent, respectively.