Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) in the country has witnessed an impressive 5.1 per cent growth during first three-quarters of current fiscal year as compared to 4.6 per cent in the same period last year.
The Year-on-Year, LSM recorded significant growth of 10.5 per cent in March 2017 as compared to 7.6 per cent of March 2016.
Official statistics Monday showed that manufacturing sector is the backbone of the economy and constitutes the second largest sector of the economy; contributing 13.5 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generating the biggest number of industrial employment with technology transfer.
It comprises mainly of LSM with 80 per cent share in manufacturing and 10.7 per cent of GDP, whereas the small scale manufacturing accounts for 1.8 per cent of total GDP and 13.7 per cent share in manufacturing.
The third component of the sector is slaughtering and accounts for 0.9 per cent of overall GDP and its share in manufacturing is 6.7 per cent.
The data further showed that production data of LSM received from Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) comprising 11 items, Ministry of Industries and Production 36 items and Provincial Bureau of Statistics 65 items have contributed in LSM period average growth by 0.03 per cent, 3.97 per cent and 1.07 per cent respectively.
The overall manufacturing sector continued to maintain its growth momentum with more vigour during the current fiscal year.
During 2017, it recorded an impressive growth of 5.3 per cent against 3.7 per cent in the last year which helped the overall industrial sector to improve by 5 per cent against 5.8 per cent of last year.
In March 2017, highest increased was recorded in automobiles 20.97 per cent, food, beverages and tobacco 20.80 per cent, iron and steel products 19.52 per cent, fertiliser 10.00 per cent, pharmaceutical 7.79 per cent, non-metallic mineral product 7.12 per cent, wood products 4.14 per cent, chemicals 3.23 per cent, textile 2.25 per cent, rubber products 1.65 per cent and paper and board 0.12 per cent.
