ISLAMABAD: Despite challenges that might reduce the pace in the remaining months of the current fiscal year, the growth momentum in significant industries remained strong in February 2022, the second final month of the PTI government, as industries reported 8.6% growth.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday that large-scale manufacturing (LSM) industries grew 8.6% in February compared to the same month a year ago.
The SBP, on the other hand, has shifted gears and raised the policy rate to 12.25 percent, up 5.25% in only a few months.
For the current fiscal year, the government has set a target of 4.8% economic growth. Pakistan’s economic growth is expected to be between 4% and 4.3 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other financial organizations, which is a good pace but less than half of what is needed to generate jobs for all new entrants in the market.
According to the PBS, the LSM sector grew 7.8% in the current fiscal year from July to February.
Data for the LSM is gathered from three separate sources. According to data collected by the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), the output of 36 products grew by 1.2% on average.
During the July-February period, the Ministry of Industries, which monitors 11 items, recorded a 7.3% rise in output. According to the PBS, provincial bureaus of statistics recorded a 9.5% increase in the output of 76 commodities.
Textile was one of the industries that saw growth in the first eight months of FY22, with a 2.9% increase. The textile industry is the most important sector in the LSM index, accounting for 18.2% of the total weight. During the first eight months of FY22, clothing wears production climbed by one-fifth.
The production of the automobile industry, iron and steel industry, paper and board industry, wood products industry, Coke and petroleum products industry, and leather product manufacturing industry all climbed by 60 percent, 17.3 percent, 8%, 174 percent, 1.2 percent, and 3.1 percent, respectively.
