It is a matter of great satisfaction that the country's industry has finally come out of deep slumber. According to State Bank of Pakistan's latest quarterly report, Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) has registered a healthy broad-based growth of 10 percent during first quarter of FY18. The achieved growth is the highest quarterly growth since FY09. It has experienced a 10 percent high growth during Q1-FY18 which is 8.1 percentage points higher compared to the same period last year. The performance was encouraging as all sectors, barring fertilizer, contributed positively. This broad-based growth can be attributed to better energy availability, improved security situation and rising consumer demand on the back of higher purchasing power and access to affordable credit facilities. The healthy performance of commodity producing sectors had a positive impact on the services sector as well.
The report has also said that this performance is also the strongest since the manufacturing index was rebased in FY06. The best benefit that the country could accrue from the $60 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor would be laying of a concrete industrial base in order to achieve greater economic growth. It is needless to say that new job opportunities will not be possible in the absence of a meaningful increase in the growth rate. In this regard, industry or LSM is going to be the flagship of all economic activities.
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