The World Bank’s recent semiannual report portraying a dark economic outlook for Pakistan gives reason to believe that over 10 million more people will drift into poverty in the country that already been in financial doldrums. This uncertainty arises from Pakistan economic growth slowdown reaching only 1.8%, and price dynamics which registered inflation of 26% during July-February period of the given exercise.
The World Bank performed an analysis of the Pakistan’s development outlook and found the country is likely to miss macroeconomic targets as a whole, except for a relatively small minority. On contrary to assumption, on condition that Pakistan more than once has failed to achieve a primary budget target being deficit for the third time on row, which is different from the IMF requirement that a surplus should be met.
Special report head Sayed Muzaffari Murtaza appreciates the economy’s moderate recovery, but he criticizes the absence of poverty mitigating attempts. An estimate of economic growth stagnating at 1.8% is forcasted where the next year could see the poverty rate being around 40%, with the total number of poor being around 98 million.
According to the report, stability of people in extreme poverty category who reside just above the poverty line is high as 10 million individuals face the possibility of falling down from it and landing into deep poverty. Whereas in some cases poor and vunerable groups might have received benefits in terms of increased agricultural output, it has not compensated for excessively high inflation, as well as the disturbing trend in wages towards shrinkage in formal sectors of employment which include less income earning groups such as construction, trade and transport sectors.
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