Unemployment and rising cost of living are main concerns of most Pakistanis
Global Consumer Confidence Index (GCCI) in Pakistan dipped to lowest level of 22% in June
According to
the new opinion poll conducted by Ipsos (a global market research and
consulting firm), most Pakistanis consider rising unemployment and a high cost
of living as the biggest concerns.
An
overwhelming majority of the respondents - 86% said
unemployment was the biggest concern for them - a level that was worse than
March results. For one out of every three persons, unemployment was the most
worrying issue.
According to the survey, Increasing
inflation was the second biggest concern for 83% of the respondents. The coronavirus, which had crippled global and Pakistan’s
economy, was third in the list as 78% of the respondents said the virus was one
of the worrying issues.
About 69% of
respondents said poverty was one of the key concerns for them while a lack of
healthcare and educational facilities was the fifth biggest concern for the
people. In what would be a rude shock to the government that believes
everything is right on the economic front, only 3% of respondents said the economy
was strong - a ratio that was 5% three months ago.
About half
of the respondents - 49% said the economy was very weak while
three months ago 38% had believed that the economic situation was weak. For the
remaining 48% of respondents, the economy was neither strong nor weak.
Only 15% of
respondents believe that the economy was heading towards the right direction -
a ratio that was 21% in March this year.
For 85% of
respondents, the economy was heading in the wrong direction while in March 79%
believed that the economy was headed south. Pakistan’s economic conditions have
remained fragile for the past many years and things have further deteriorated
in the last two years, except for improvement in the current account deficit
that too was achieved by slowing the economic growth.
People are
not willing to make personal investment decisions over the next six months due
to an overall low trust in the economy, according to the poll. On the
Investment Index, the score was only 11.3, suggesting that the respondents
would not invest in the near future.
Some 90% of
respondents said they were less confident about making investment decisions
while 100% respondents said they would not make any major purchases.
As many as
45% respondents said their current personal finance situation was weak - a
ratio that was 40% three months ago. Some 59% of respondents said their current
financial position was neither strong nor weak. Pakistan’s score on the Jobs
Index was 38.2, compared to the global average of 46.
Ipsos is a
global market research and consulting firm that has been conducting surveys in
Pakistan for its Global Consumer Confidence Index (GCCI), generally known as
the National Index. The GCCI dipped to the lowest score of 22 in June in
Pakistan compared with the global average of 45.1 for the month and average of 42.5
for Middle Eastern and North African countries.
The survey
findings revealed that consumers had very low confidence and were reluctant to
make investment decisions. They were also not very optimistic about future of
the economy and jobs. The fear of losing jobs has grown compared with the
survey three months ago.
People were
questioned about their confidence in the economy, their opinion about the
current situation compared to a year earlier, investment decisions and job
prospects and the most worrying issues for them. The survey was conducted in
June.
Results of
Ipsos research are based on primary data collected from the nationally
representative sample of 1,100 people.
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