ISLAMABAD: Majority of Pakistanis continue to fear that the country is heading in the wrong direction since last year, claims a survey.

France-based organisation lpsos, in its survey titled “Consumer Confidence Survey in Pakistan”, released on Sunday claimed that four in five Pakistanis continued to fear that the country was heading in the wrong direction since last year.

It also revealed that three in four Pakistanis expressed dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Pakistan today, while the same proportion of Pakistanis described as bad the current economic situation in the country.

Three out of four people describe economic situation as bad

The survey, which the organisation asserted 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 50:50pc) in September this year, said that unemployment was a worrying issue which got amplified by 11 per cent people since last year, followed by increasing inflation and poverty.

The survey report, while clubbing various stated responses by theme stated that 75pc of the most worrying issues related to economic despair of the masses. It also stated that significant increase in inflation and poverty are at the top since August last year.

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 loadshedding was prominent only in Sindh. The survey also revealed that only one in 20 Pakistanis rated the current local economy as strong.

“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 50pc Pakistanis expected this to be even weaker in the next six months.

The survey also revealed that four in five Pakistanis continued to feel less confident about their job security since August 2018.

“One out of two Pakistanis reported experiencing themselves or witnessing people known to them personally, who lost their jobs in last year. This proportion was 31 per cent from Aug 2018 to Aug 2019,” it said, adding that one out of 10 Pakistanis feared they would lose their jobs in the next six months.

“In comparison to one year ago, 9 out of 10 Pakistanis are feeling less comfortable while purchasing general household items as well as major ones like cars, homes etc,” the survey said and claimed that in comparison one year ago, more than 8 out of 10 people were feeling less confident about their ability to save and invest in the future.

The survey claimed that Global Consumer Confidence Index for Pakistan stood at 28.9 in September 2020 against global average of 41.8.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2020