Prime Minister Imran Khan has hailed the government’s policies of productivity-led growth after the release of the latest estimates of poverty reduction by the World Bank. In a tweet, the premier shared the poverty reduction statistics of the global lender and attributed the government policies for such results
According to the global lender estimates based on international poverty line of $1.90 PPP 2011 per day, poverty incidence has fallen to 4.8% in FY21 from 5.3% in FY20 and is expected to continue downwards to 4.0% by FY23.
As per the government’s statistics, the economy has recovered despite the pandemic’s challenges. However, that’s not the case. If we look at the ground realities, the economic crisis in the country has reached its limits. The prices of such items of daily use as vegetable ghee, cooking oil, sugar and some lentils have increased by an annualised average of 27pc, 23pc, 22pc and 21pc since October 2018.
The increase in wheat flour price has been 15pc a year during this period. In absolute terms, cooking oil, sugar and chicken have become 88pc, 83pc and 60pc more expensive than they were three years ago. Double-digit food price inflation in Pakistan remains much higher than experienced in other regional countries like India and Bangladesh,
Ineffective market governance, frequent disruption in supply chains, and profiteering by investors and hoarders are a few problems that the decision-makers need to address intelligently on an urgent basis to mitigate the impact of the surging food prices.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has agreed to revive its financial support to Pakistan, including about $3 billion in safe deposits and $1.2 billion worth of oil supplies on deferred payments as a source of relief on the economic front.
The sum of $4.2bn lent by Riyadh during the prime minister’s recent visit will also provide some respite to the government even as it loses its grip on the external sector. In fact, following the announcement of this news, the currency market bounced back to gain Rs2.27 against the US dollar in intra-day trading in the inter-bank market.
Inflation should be a cause of concern for Pakistan’s policymakers since it is detrimental to the well-being of the people. There is a need for the government to take immediate steps and provide relief to the people.
