ISLAMABAD (December 31 2002) : Industrial production during July-September grew by 5.2 percent. Cement production increased by 9.7 percent, car, motorcycle and bicycles production grew by 25.6 percent, 28.8 percent and 29.3 percent respectively, says Finance Division's report on first quarter of 2002-03 released on Monday.
Overall foreign investment during the first quarter stood at $ 167.4 million as against $ 21.9 million in the corresponding period of last year.
The performance of key economic indicators during the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year (2002-03) is very encouraging. Both exports and imports have picked up, tax collection is on target, inflation is low, remittances have shot up, FDI is rising and reflecting the sentiments of foreign investors on government's economic policy, exchange rate is not only stable but it is predictable; foreign exchange reserves are rising on daily basis; stock market is buoyant, reverse flight of capital is taking place, real estate prices are picking up; and above all, the sign of economic stability is quite visible.
Industrial production during July-September grew by 5.2 percent. Cement production increased by 9.7 percent, car, motorcycle and bicycles production grew by 25.6 percent, 28.8 percent and 29.3 percent respectively.
As against the target of Rs 90 billion, tax collection during the first quarter stood at Rs 90.35 billion.
As against the corresponding period of last year, tax collection grew by 16.6 percent.
Direct taxes have grown by 6.9 percent. Indirect taxes have increased by 20.5 percent.
Within indirect taxes, sales tax grew by 26.5 percent. Most importantly, sales tax collected out of domestic economic activity registered an impressive growth of 58 percent.
This is a confirmation of the rising levels of domestic economic activity. While custom collection grew by 23.3 percent, central excise duty collection registered a decline of 3.3 percent mainly because of the shifting of items from excise to sale tax.
Overall inflation remained below 4 percent (to be exact 3.8 percent) during the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Food inflation has remained around 5.0 percent while non-food inflation averaged 2.7 percent during the same period.
STOCK MARKET: Stock market has remained buoyant and the index grew by 27.3 percent during July-October 2002. In other words, KSE index increased from 1770 on June 30,2002 to 2253 on October 30, 2002.
Market capitalisation posted a net gain of Rs 66 billion or by 16.2 percent during the same period.
Exports during the first quarter of the current fiscal year grew by 14 percent Primary commodities exports grew by 11.8 percent while textile export grew by 14.9 percent and engineering goods exports grew by 16 percent.
Imports grew by 11.1 percent during first quarter. More importantly, non-food, non-oil imports grew by 18 percent.
Machinery imports grew by 25.4 percent Such an impressive recovery in non-oil, non-food imports as well as machinery imports are clear indication of rising levels of domestic economic activity.
Trade balance improved by 16 percent during the same period.
