5 out of 6 people say they are worse off now than in 2009

People in Punjab most upset with their lives.


Shahbaz Rana September 28, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Five out of every six Pakistanis feel that their living standards are the same or worse since the early months of the administration of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a damning indictment of the government’s economic management.


That statistic, along with a host of other data, was released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday as part of the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey for fiscal year 2011.

According to the survey, about 83.2% of Pakistani said that their living standards were the same or worse than they were during fiscal year 2009. The comparable figure two years ago was 77.5%, showing a downward trend under the current administration.

And four out of every ten households said that they were actually worse off than they were two years ago, including one in ten that said that their lives were “much worse” than in 2009.

Only 15% believed that their living standards were “better” than in 2009 and only 1.7% said that their lives were “much better” than two years ago.

The survey data broadly matches the revelations in the 2011 Household Integrated Economic Survey, which revealed that the bottom 60% of Pakistani households by income had seen their expenses rise faster than their incomes over the last three years.

The survey asked questions about living standards, as well as the respondents’ opinions about the government and their own lives, in every district across the country. A sample of 76,548 households was used to measure the education, health, household assets, as well as satisfaction (or lack thereof) with government services.

Provincial variation

Perhaps surprisingly, at 44% the highest ratio of people who said their lives were worse off was in the province of Punjab, which is traditionally viewed as the most prosperous of Pakistan’s federating units. The corresponding figure for two years ago was less than 33%.

The survey does not explain why the people of Punjab are so dissatisfied though the gas and energy crisis, which has disproportionately affected Punjab’s industrial sector, may be partially to blame for the high levels of dissatisfaction.

Balochistan, paradoxically, reported the lowest level of people who said they were worse off, at 27% of the province’s population. Admittedly, the province also had the lowest proportion of people who said their lives had improved over the last two years, at 12%.

In Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, about 40% of the population said that they were worse off than two years ago, with 12.7% and 17.4% respectively saying that their lives had improved.

Rating the government

While overall levels of satisfaction with government services has declined, the government continued to gain high marks on education, with about 61% of those surveyed saying they were satisfied with government schools, though this ratio is 2% lower than it was in 2009.

The sharpest drop occurred in healthcare, where 31% of those surveyed saying that they were satisfied with government healthcare, a 9% drop compared to the comparable figure two years ago. A mere 12% are satisfied with the family planning services compared to 15% in 2009.

Only 10% said they were satisfied with the police, a vote of no-confidence in law enforcement that has remained unchanged over the past two years.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29th,  2011.

COMMENTS (7)

Zia Khatri | 12 years ago | Reply

Gold is not a perfect hedge against inflation as generally believed. I know what is perfect!

Check Gold and Rupee purchasing power getting crushed during last 10 years: http://www.kseinvest.com/news/grpp.gif

KhalidJaved | 12 years ago | Reply

@Hatim: totally agree - it is highly irresponsible

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