ISLAMABAD:A new poll shows that economic problems are the thing that worries Pakistanis the most, with only 10% saying they think the country is going in the right direction.
The results of the poll show that the country as a whole is in bad shape. However, the number of people who think the economy is very weak has dropped to 60%, according to a survey done last month by the market research company Ipsos.
According to the poll, Pakistanis were most worried about rising prices, losing their jobs, and falling into poverty.
People have been living with double-digit inflation for a long time. The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) went up by a huge 10% in just one week, thanks to gas prices going up by 480% for the poorest families.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has not been able to come up with reliable numbers on unemployment and poverty in the country, even though the economy has been growing slowly for a long time.
Nine out of ten Pakistanis who answered the survey thought the country was going in the wrong direction. This is up from almost all of them three months ago. Only 5% of women thought that Pakistan was going the right way, which was the lowest percentage.
Only 14% of people ages 18 to 24 thought Pakistan was going the right way. This is the age group that political parties will be trying to win over in the next general election.
According to Ipsos, people’s views on the current economic situation have barely gotten better since September, when they hit an all-time low. Only 5% of people now think it is good.
More than one-third of those who answered said that the economy had not gotten better or worse. The economy was weak for the other 60% of people who answered, up from 76% in September of this year. The economy wasn’t stronger, but the number of people who didn’t have an opinion rose from 22% to 35%, which caused things to get better. Pakistan had to deal with the threat of a sovereign default during the last fiscal year. This threat was only eased when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a new bailout plan. For most people, though, it didn’t change how hard things were financially.
The poll found that inflation, rising poverty, and unemployment were the things that worried Pakistanis the most. The average for the past year showed that inflation was the single biggest fear for people.
In the past year, the prices of fuel, power, gas, household goods, transportation, food, and industrial inputs have all gone up by a lot. The price of energy for less than 300 units a month is now almost Rs 12,000. This is too much to bear.
Following rising poverty, higher electricity prices, and state offices interfering with one another’s business, unemployment was a major source of concern. Within three months, the number of people who said the state offices got in the way went from 2% to 4%. This shows how things really are in the country.
For many years now, Pakistan’s political and economic situations have been weak. The results of the survey showed that people’s personal finances did not get much better. More than 40% of Pakistanis thought that their area’s economy would get even worse in the next six months, which shows how desperate they are. One-fourth of them said it would stay the same.
In the past six months, only about a quarter of Pakistanis said they had a good personal financial situation. About half of those who answered said that their own finances were bad, while the other half said that they stayed the same. The survey results showed that consumers were not sure of themselves and were hesitant to make financial decisions. They also had doubts about saving money and investing in their future.
Also, 92% of those who answered were less sure of their ability to save money and put it toward their future. The last eight percent were fine. About 98% of Pakistanis were less likely to buy big things like cars and homes, which showed that not even buyers from within the country were ready to spend money. People’s living standards are getting worse because of inflation, as only 4% wanted to make any kind of purchase for their homes.
Pakistan still has the lowest score on the Global Consumer Confidence Index when compared to other economies in the region, the poll showed. India, which is the biggest democracy in the world, got a score of 64.1 on the global trust index, while Pakistan got a score of 31.
