Nothing could have been more telling about the grave economic situation in
Pakistan than the recent Eid celebrations.
Disappointment and anxiety writ large on the faces of millions who wanted to celebrate the festival with the usual traditional fervour and josh but the prices of even ordinary eatables were so high that little hope and joy they had nursed over the month was killed even before the festival day.
There was marked disappointment than happiness across Pakistan as sweets, mutton delicacies and other traditional food items were marked high in price. High inflation killed people’s joy. The Eid market had not only shrunk but tanked sharply from last year.
Children’s clothes and toys and gifts were hit the hardest. About 40 per cent of the Eid expenses of an average family is spent on children. The high price had added to the burden of such expenses. People were forced to look for cheaper clothes and accessories in the face of high bills. Shops remained forlorn with shoppers opting to window-shop more and then turn to makeshift stalls where cheap products were on sale. Men too shifted from custom made dresses to ready-made clothing, causing a sharp decline in men’s fabric and tailoring business which not long thrived during the fasting month. A made-to-order dress cost Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 while a ready-made shalwar kameez costs half the price.
Online shopping too saw a visible decline due to market contractions across the country.
In total, the Eid market is estimated to have contracted by at least 15pc to Rs368 billion compared to Rs432bn last year. A random calculation showed that a family spent only Rs11,000 per family (assuming the family has six to seven members).
The Eid dampener underlined the grave status of Pakistan’s economy, confirmed by a private equity firm’s estimate that the economy was projected to further slow down and average out at 2% over the next five years, widening income disparity, increasing poverty, and boosting joblessness. Senior Economist Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan was quoted as saying that Pakistan’s “economy is gradually sinking in front of our eyes, and we are mere silent spectators.“
The analysis showed that this growth would slow down further. With an economy growing at 3.4 per annum with a population growing by 2.5%, the living standards of the bulk of the people have declined. This also signals a widening income inequality given that some sections of the people did benefit from this crisis.
What worries the economists further is that successive governments have
outsourced the country’s economic management to international financial
institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, leaving the
people to the mercy of Western economists who neither have any concern nor any respect for the people or country. Since 2008-09 until today, Pakistan has remained under successive IMF programmes.
