islamabad - Pakistan’s Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector had recorded 3.19 percent growth during first couple of months (July and August) of the ongoing financial year (FY 2015) over the corresponding period of the previous year. The Quantum Index Number (QIM) of LSM sector has registered at 113.46 points during July-August period of FY 2015 as compared to the 109.96 points of the same months of last year, showing an increase of 3.19 percent. According to the latest figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the LSM has shown 5.27 percent growth in August 2014 over the corresponding period of the previous year.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics computes the LSM figures on production data received from the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (comprising 11 items), Ministry of Industries and Production (36 items) and the Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (65 items). The latest figures showed that OCAC had recorded negative growth of 0.07 percent, Ministry of Industries 0.76 percent and Provincial BOS 2.5 percent during first couple of months of the FY 2015.  According to the PBS figures, growth in LSM was mainly driven by 11 categories of items in the first two months of current fiscal year 2014-15 over its preceding year. Major contribution towards positive growth was from textile 1.32 percent, food and beverages 9.61 percent, paper and board 1.03 percent, fertilizers 0.53 percent, electronics 12.04 percent, iron and steel products 10.53 percent, leather products 2.95 percent, chemicals 8.86 percent, non metallic mineral products 1.07 percent, rubber products 15.73 percent, engineering products 17.37 percent, pharmaceutical 4.49 percent and automobile 5.23 percent during July-August of FY 2015.
However, only two categories including wood products and coke and petroleum products had recorded negative growth of 75.13 percent and 0.67 percent respectively.  In electronic and electrical goods, production of refrigerators recorded a growth of 22.7 percent; deep-freezers was up by 27.62 percent; air-conditioners 18.24 percent; electric fans 20.54 percent and electric transformers 41.46 percent, TV sets 5.63 percent during the first two months of the present fiscal year over the same period previous year. However, following of the goods registered negative growth: electric bulbs 30.62 percent; electric meters 23.96 percent and switch gears 35.83 per cent during the period under review over the same months last year.