ISLAMABAD: As many as 80 per cent Pakistanis believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Unemployment and inflation have been top issues of concern for the citizens since Aug 2019.

Moreover, compared to a year ago, 86pc Pakistanis are less confident about job security.

These are the findings of a study, “Consumer Confidence Survey” conducted by a market research company, Ipsos.

During the study, 1,048 people were interviewed from across the country out of which 67pc were males and 33pc females. It said 86pc of the respondents were from urban areas while 37pc belonged to the age group of 31 to 40 years.

When asked if the country was moving in a right direction, four in five respondents believed that it was heading in the wrong direction and the situation had worsened by 7pc in the last one year.

Asked about the most worrying issue for them, 44pc of the respondents said it was inflation, 16pc said it was unemployment and 11pc said increasing poverty was the major issue.

Other matters of concerns were burden of additional taxes, increase in electricity prices, coronavirus, falling value of the rupee, corruption and terrorism.

Only 8pc of the respondents rated the current state of economy as ‘strong’. Those who decisively called it ‘weak’ were 41pc and the ratio increased by 14 percentage points in the last one year.

When asked about the situation of economy after six months, 50pc of the respondents believed that the economy will become weaker. Over 50pc respondents also believed that their financial condition will be be weaker.

Reflecting on the last one year, 86pc Pakistanis were less confident about job security compared to one year ago and 50pc respondents claimed to personally know someone who lost their job as a result of the economic conditions. They said the situation was slightly better an year ago.

The report said 84pc Pakistanis were not confident about their ability to invest in future, 85pc were not confident to make a major purchase and 85pc were less comfortable in making household purchases.

The study claimed that compared to the same month last year, Pakistan Consumers’ Confidence Index had gone down by 8.3 points which was the lowest among similar emerging markets.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022