LSMI output dips 7.06pc in Aug.

Byline: Imran Ali Kundi

ISLAMABAD -- The large-scale manufacturing index (LSMI) had shrunk for nine months in a row after recording negative growth of over seven percent in August this year, which indicates that economic activities had slowed down in the country.

The LSMI had shrunk by 7.06 percent in August 2019, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the PBS data showed that LSMI has declined by 6.04 percent in two months (July and August) of the current fiscal year. The large-scale manufacturing output had declined for nine months in a row amid sluggish economic activities in the country.

The official data showed that growth in big industries like food, beverages, pharmaceutical, chemical, fertilisers, leather and iron, automobiles and steel sectors had declined in first two months of the ongoing fiscal year. Economic experts believed that decline in production of big industries would result in massive layoffs across the industrial sector, which would increase the unemployment rate in the country.

The government had set LSM target of 3.1 percent for the year 2019-20. However, the large-scale manufacturing sector is continuously showing negative growth. According to the PBS, production data of 11 items from Oil Companies Advisory Committee had registered a negative growth of 0.66 percent in July and August period of the year 2019-20. Similarly, the LSM data, provided by the Ministry of Industries and Production for 36 items, had also shown negative growth of 4.89 percent during first two months of this financial year. However, the data provided by the provincial Bureaus of Statistics for 65 items had recorded negative growth of 0.98 percent over the same period.

The negative growth is mainly the outcome of dip in production of automobiles that went down by 30.26 percent and wood products by 32.97 percent. Similarly, production of coke and petroleum products had declined by 17.77 percent. Meanwhile, production of iron and steel...

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