Islamabad March 29 2024: During the second quarter 2023-24, Pakistan economy posted a modest growth of 1.0% compared to 2.5% in first quarter, reported by National Accounts Committee (NAC).
Agriculture has shown a growth of 5.02% as compared to same period of last year mainly due to healthy growth in important crops (8.12%) because of significant growth in the final production of cotton, rice and maize, first estimate of wheat (6.7% increase in area) and cotton ginning (53.6%). Livestock is at the same level while forestry and fishing have also retained their normal growth.
Industry in Q2, like Q1, has shown a negative growth (-0.84%) as compared to Q2 last year. Mining & quarrying industry has witnessed negative growth of 4.17% because of decrease in production of gas (-5.04%), marble (-40.13%), limestone (-20%) etc. and decline in exploration cost. Large scale manufacturing, which is based on Quantum Index of Manufacturing (QIM), has witnessed a positive growth of 0.35% due to increase in Cooking oil, Garments, Fertilizers, etc. Electricity, gas and water supply industry has shown a positive growth of 1.54% because of increase in output of IPPs, Hydro and Nuclear plants. Construction industry declined to -17.59% due to decrease in production of cement (-8.7%) and iron & steel (-2.5%) as well as decline in general government expenditure.
Services industry has shown a nominal growth of 0.01% in Q2 of 2023-24. Detailed analysis of the industry reflects a mixed trend. Wholesale and retail trade has witnessed a growth of 2.11% because of positive growth in agriculture output and LSM. Transport and storage industry has increased by 1.13% because of increase in output of railways and road transport. Due to high inflation, real growth in Information & Communication, Finance & Insurance and Public Administration and Social Security industries has become negative at 5.43%, 11.1% and 16.18% respectively. Further, both Education and Human health and Social Work industries have posted negative growth at 0.85% and 2.53% respectively. Other private services have been estimated at 3.63% on the basis of indicators received from the sources.
