Pakistan worried over rising inflation in the country: Survey

A recent survey has put a question mark over the priorities of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as people across the country are fearing "uncontrolled inflation".

According to a survey by Ipsos, published in The Express Tribune on Tuesday, two-thirds of respondents in the poll have described the current economic situation in Pakistan as "bad" with increasing skepticism about any improvement in their conditions.

"32 per cent of respondents, inflation was the most worrisome issue, followed by unemployment (20 per cent) and COVID-19 (16 per cent), which showed the poll results. The survey findings also put a question mark over the priorities of Imran Khan, who talked about eradicating corruption more than lessening the economic woes of the people."

The findings showed that three per cent of respondents said that corruption, bribery, adulteration and nepotism were an issue for them.

"Starting from exports to foreign direct investment, revenue collection, fiscal deficit and public debt, all the indicators have deteriorated further during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. Imran Khan has replaced two finance ministers and last week gave the finance portfolio to Hammad Azhar," the survey revealed.

The survey, which was conducted from March 18 and 24 while interviewing over 1,000 respondents, revealed that consumers had very low confidence and were reluctant to make investment decisions. They were also not very optimistic about the future of the economy and jobs. The fear of losing jobs has remained far behind, as increasing inflation tops the list of economy-related problems.

About one-tenth of respondents mentioned increasing poverty as the most worrisome issue.

People were questioned about their confidence in the economy, their opinion about the current situation compared to last year, investment decisions, job prospects and the most worrying issues for them.

Pakistan's economic condition has remained fragile for the past many years and things have deteriorated further in the last two and a half years, except for improvement in the current account deficit that too was achieved by slowing the economic growth, The Express Tribune reported.

About eight out of every 10 people said that they were less confident about their job security while 43 per cent said that they lost their job in the past six months due to economic conditions.

( With inputs from ANI )