Financial condition of every third household tumbles, says survey

Just one out of five respondents to PSLM survey said they were better off.

ISLAMABAD:

One out of every third household has reported worsening financial conditions and just one in five said they were more prosperous while 43% said their conditioned remained the same, according to the findings of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM).

As many as 35.4% urban households reported deterioration in economic conditions in the last fiscal year as compared to 38.4% of rural households, according to the PSLM survey, conducted by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The findings also show that less than half of the country’s population is satisfied with police services. A little over half of the population that used basic health units’ services were satisfied with the level of government services.

The results of the PSLM survey are based on the responses given by 75,520 surveyed households that have been contacted to capture the level of prosperousness and unhappiness during the previous financial year 2012-13, which was also the last year of five-year rule of the PPP government.

As many as 42.8% household reported that their economic conditions did not change, when compared with the previous years. The trend appeared normal as in 2010-11, 40.3% households reported no change in their economic situations.

In Punjab, little over four out of every ten households reported no change in their lifestyles, a ratio that was alarmingly at 52.8% in Sindh, 44.3% in what is believed to be the undernourished province of Balochistan, while little over one-third in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa (K-P) said their conditions did not improve.

As many as 37.5% reported that their economic conditions have either worsened or much worsened in the last financial year. The results were somehow better than 2010-11 when almost 43% reported deterioration in their economic conditions.

In Punjab, 38.7% reported deterioration in their economic conditions –the percentage recorded at 31.4% in Sindh, 41.3% in K-P and 40.4% in Balochistan. The results suggest that Punjab provincial administration was not as successful as the governments in Sindh and Balochistan. In Balochistan the respondents reporting worsening conditions decreased from 50% to 40.4%.

In K-P, the militancy-hit federating unit, the ratio of households showing unhappiness with their economic situation increased from 39.6% to 41.3%.

At national level, 19.5% households said their economic conditions either improved or improved a lot in the last financial year –a figure that was 16.6% in 2010-11. In Punjab 20% households became more prosperous as compared to 15% in Sindh and Balochistan and almost
25% in K-P.

Satisfaction with state’s facilities

The survey’s findings also reveal that 47.8% of the households showed confidence over police facilities and services.  A little over half of the respondents in Punjab were satisfied with police services as compared to only 38% in Sindh, 55.5% in KP and almost 50% in Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2014.