Haris Gazdar, SDPI

1999

Executive Summary

Economic and Poverty Trends
Current economic conditions

Economic growth has slowed down considerably in Pakistan over the 1990s compared with a decade earlier. The most recent period in particular, i.e. the mid-1990s, has seen a serious recession.

Some causes of the recent economic crisis are of a short term nature as the country’s economy, particularly the manufacturing sector, adjusts to the loss of subsidies and concessions. The severity of the recession in manufacturing is partly due to the failure to make orderly adjustments over a longer period. To an extent the loss in investor confidence due to law and order problems,  and  perceptions  of  widespread  corruption  are  also short-to-medium  term  problems.  Other  short  term  factors  that have worsened the situation in the recent years have been sporadic crop failures due to crop infestation or bad weather.

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