Industrial production increased in the first half of this fiscal year on the back of higher growth in pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, and cement sectors. Relatively calm political situation after January 5 election helped the industries boost their output. The industrial production in the July-December period of FY2014-15 grew 10% from a year earlier, showed data released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics recently. During the period, manufacturing output, which contributes about 20% to industrial production, rose 10% from a year earlier, while electricity output rose 10.8% and mining increased 10%. During the period, October marked the lowest production declining nearly 12% from the previous month. Among medium and large-scale manufacturing industries, the cement sector grew 66.3%, followed by pharmaceuticals 47.5% and iron and steel 23.2%. Beverage, tobacco, textile, chemicals and chemical products saw negative growths while garment, food products, electrical equipment, non-metallic mineral products, leather and related products and fabricated metal products posted positive growths during the period. “The positive industrial production is a result of cloudless political sky during the period,” said Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to a caretaker government. But this growth might slow down in the second half of the fiscal year, he observed as the January-March period was marred by the political unrest. Asian Development Bank (ADB), in its latest quarterly update on Bangladesh economy, said industry sector growth in FY2015 will be lower than expected, as exports, small-scale manufacturing, and construction activities have been affected by the political unrest. However, better performance of large and medium-scale industries prior to the onset of the unrest is expected to hold up industrial sector’s growth, it said. Industry growth dropped to 8.4% in FY2014 from 9.6% a year earlier, because of supply disruption and weaker consumer confidence resulting from political unrest, according to ADB. It forecast that the industrail growth is expected to rise to 9% in FY2016 with brighter prospects for the readymade garment industry following compliance and safety standard reforms together with increased external demand as eurozone economies recover. The industry sector will be boosted by better availability of electricity and infrastructure, as expected new power generation is added to supply and ongoing road and railway projects are completed, and improved business confidence, ADB said.
Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2015/apr/29/industrial-output-grows-10-h1#sthash.wrektv5j.dpuf
