Four out of five Pakistanis fear country headed wrong direction: Survey

A survey conducted by France-based organisation claims that majority of Pakistanis continue to fear that country is heading into the wrong direction since last year.

The survey tittle “Consumer Confidence Survey in Pakistan” was released on Sunday, which claimed that four out of five Pakistanis have concern about country’s direction.

It also revealed that they are not satisfied with the way thing are going in the country, while same proportion of Pakistanis are also concerned with current economic situation in Pakistan.

As many as 1000 people from urban and rural areas of the country aged 18-plus with (male and female 50:50pc) participated in the survey, which is conducted in September this year. Unemployment was a worrying issue which got amplified by 11 per cent people since last year, followed by increasing inflation and poverty.

The survey also revealed significant increase in inflation and poverty are at the top since August last year.

High cost of living is the most important worrying issue across all province, followed by unemployment, increasing poverty and corruption among top five worries in Punjab and in KP, while power loadshedding was prominent only in Sindh.

The survey also revealed that only one in 20 Pakistanis rated the current local economy as strong. Job security was another fear among four out of five Pakistanis 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.

The survey also comparted last two year that 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 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.