Industrial output at three-year high level in December

Dunya News

Industrial output in December 2016 reached 7.04 percent.

KARACHI (Dunya News) - As Pakistan’s economy continue to improve, industrial output in December 2016 reached three-year record high. This was revealed in a report published by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday.

These healthy statistics in large-scale manufacturing sector will back the federal government to achieve GDP’s set target of 5.7 for financial year 2016-17.

The main drivers of the sector s growth during the period under review were: paper and board that recorded growth of 5.69 percent iron and steel with growth rate of 15.65 percent, non-metallic mineral products with growth of 9.31 percent, pharmaceutical 7.9 percent, rubber products 0.45 percent, electronics 14.35 percent, automobiles 6.67 percent and fertilisers recorded growth of 3.47 percent.

Report narrated that industrial output in December-2016 swelled by 7pc which was 2.4pc during same period in 2015 and 5.8pc during same period in 2014.

Trade analysts say federal government is providing uninterrupted power supply to industries across country whereas interest rate is at 40-year low, these two factors helped in surpassing the target set for LSM growth.