By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector contracted 14.37 percent in May, its 11th consecutive monthly decline, as high costs, currency devaluation and political turmoil weighed on the industry, official data showed on Thursday.
Analysts said the LSM sector has been hit hard by a combination of factors, including expensive energy, tight monetary policy, low domestic demand and weak exports.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said LSM output fell 9.87 percent in the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2022-23 (July-May).
The contraction was broad-based, with 16 out of 22 sectors reporting negative growth in May. The worst-hit sectors were automobiles, pharmaceuticals, textiles, chemicals and petroleum products, which have significant shares in LSM.
The PBS data showed that some sectors managed to register positive growth in May compared to a year earlier. These included garments, footballs, food, sugar, cement and non-metallic mineral products.
The LSM sector had recorded a strong growth of 11.7 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22 (July-June), rebounding from a contraction of 7.8 percent in the previous year. The growth was driven by a recovery in global demand and supportive government policies that boosted exports and domestic consumption.
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