ISLAMABAD   -  The production of Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) increased by 3.43 percent on year-on-year (YoY) basis during the month of December 2023 compared to the output of the same month of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Sta­tistics (PBS) reported. On month-on-month (MoM) basis, the large industry grew by 15.69 percent in December 2023 compared to November 2023, PBS reported. However, the industry witnessed nega­tive growth of 0.39 percent during the first half of the current fiscal year as com­pared to the corresponding period of last year. The pro­visional quantum indices of Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) for Oc­tober 2023 with the base year 2015-16 have been developed based on the latest data supplied by the source agencies. The main contributors towards over­all growth of -0.39% dur­ing July-December 2023-24 included, food (0.76), tobacco (-0.73), textile (-2.05) garments (2.26), paper & board (-0.12), pe­troleum products (0.55), chemicals (0.30), phar­maceuticals (1.43), ce­ment (0.12), iron and steel products (-0.07), electrical equipment (-0.38) ,auto­mobiles (-1.70) and furni­ture (-1.05).