ISLAMABAD: After a decrease in growth by 1.4 percent in July, the Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) in August 2022 has posted a paltry growth of 0.6% when compared with the same month of 2021 and 3.9% when compared with July 2022.
According to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, the growth in first two months (July and August) of the current fiscal year has however declined by 0.4 percent when compared with the same period of last year, raising concerns about an economic slowdown caused by the highest-ever cost of energy and raw material for industry.
The indication of a slowdown started in June when manufacturing activity grew by only 0.2pc compared to May. In the previous fiscal year, large-scale manufacturing grew 11.7pc year-on-year.
The slowdown of LSM also appeared to be broad-based, with 13 out of 22 sectors of LSM witnessing negative growth both in July and August, while only nine sectors posted paltry growth.
The production estimation for LSM industries was made using the new base year of 2015-16.
According to the Provisional Quantum Index Numbers of Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (QIM), estimated for August 2022 is 114.8 and for July-August, 2022-23 is 112.6.
As per the data with the base year 2015-16, the main contributors towards the overall growth of -0.4 percent are, garments (5.3), petroleum products (-1.2), cement (-2.0), fertilizers (-0.2) and iron & steel products (0.5).
The production in July-August 2022-23 as compared to July-August 2021-22 has increased in wearing apparel, chemicals, iron & steel products, and furniture while it decreased in food, beverages, tobacco, textile, coke & petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, rubber products, non-metallic mineral products, fabricated metal, electrical equipment, machinery and equipment, automobiles and other transport equipment.
The sectors showing growth during July-August include wearing apparel (60.9 percent), leather products (11.5 percent), wood products (4.3 percent), paper & board (6.6 percent), chemicals (2.8 percent), chemicals products (14.7 percent), fertilizers (-0.5 percent), iron & steel products (11.7 percent), furniture (174.1 percent) and other manufacturing (Football) (52.9 percent).
The sectors showing decline during food (8.9 percent), beverages (0.5 percent), tobacco (43.5 percent), textile (3.7 percent), coke & petroleum products (16.1 percent), pharmaceuticals (32.3 percent), rubber products (2.9 percent), non-metallic mineral products (19.7 percent), fabricated metal (15.7 percent), computer, electronics, and optical products (5.1 percent), electrical equipment (4.2 percent), machinery and equipment (38 percent), automobiles (19.7 percent), other transport equipment (30.4 percent).
