Large industries register healthy growth of nearly 10 pc.

The large industries bounced back last month and posted a healthy growth of nearly 10 percent, breaking a cycle of constant contraction in past over one year, reported Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

The large-scale manufacturing (LSM) output increased 9.66 percent in December over the same month of the last year, according to the national data reporting agency.

This helped to bring the overall cumulative contraction in the LSM sector down to 3.4 percent during July-December period of fiscal year 2019-20. During five months, the contraction in LSM sector was close to 6 percent, which significantly came down to 3.4 percent due to better performance in large industries in December.

Large businesses were bearing the brunt of very high interest rate, documentation drive by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and high energy prices. The growth in the LSM will also help to create jobs if the trend continues in...