NEW DELHI: At least 80% of Pakistanis are fearful that the country is heading in the wrong direction, according to a survey.
The survey “Consumer Confidence Survey in Pakistan” released on Sunday said that four in five Pakistanis fear that the country was heading in the wrong direction since last year.
For the majority of the people, unemployment was a worrying issue which saw an 11 per cent rise since last year, followed by increasing inflation and poverty, Dawn newspaper reported quoting the survey.
According to the survey, conducted by France-based organisation lpsos, three in four Pakistanis described the current economic situation in the country as bad.
“While high cost of living is the most important worrying issue across all provinces, followed by unemployment and increasing poverty, corruption was among top five worries in Punjab and in KP and power load shedding was prominent only in Sindh. The survey also revealed that only one in 20 Pakistanis rated the current local economy as strong,” Dawn reported.
“Looking ahead six months from now, 4 in 5 Pakistanis foresee the economy getting deteriorated,” the survey said, adding that two in five Pakistanis considered their personal financial situation as weak while over 50 per cent Pakistanis expected this to be even weaker in the next six months.
According to Dawn, the survey claimed that the Global Consumer Confidence Index for Pakistan stood at 28.9 in September 2020 against a global average of 41.8.
The survey was based on 1,000 samples collected from urban and rural areas of the country from people aged 18-plus years with (male and female 50:50%) in September this year.
(With inputs from Dawn news)