The major economic indicators of the country show positive signs including foreign exchange reserves, workers remittances and investments despite economic challenges being faced by the country.
The latest economic indicators reveal that production of the Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector expanded 2.2% in December. According to the latest economic data, an increase in output in sugar, petroleum products and automobiles (tractors and buses) were the principal contributing factors to the overall rise in LSM.
It said that export growth has also increased by 38% while imports increased by 4% in January 2011. The official data further revealed that workers remittances have amounted to US $ 6,118 million in July-January 2010-11 as against US $ 5,197 million in the same period of last fiscal year, an increase of 17.7%. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and UK were the largest source of increase in the workers remittances.
The data further revealed that gross foreign exchange reserves including Foreign Current deposits with scheduled banks stood at $17.4 billion as on March 4, 2011.
The data said that for the fiscal year 2010-11 (July-February), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) tax collection stood at Rs.874 billion on net basis as compared to Rs.791 billion in the same period of last financial year, thereby posting an increase of 10.4%. Foreign Direct Investment for July -January 2010-11 stood at $ 947 billion.
According to the latest economic data, the stock of wheat as on March 03,2011 amounted to 5.04 million tons as against 5.01 million tons in the same period last year.