The poverty rate in Pakistan has climbed to 28.8 percent in 2024-25 from 21.9 percent in 2018-19, marking a significant setback after years of progress and highlighting the economic difficulty of the last six years, as per official data.
The new statistics, based on the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2024-25, show that poverty levels have increased in all provinces. Punjab and Sindh have been the most affected ones while Balochistan showed the smallest increase, according to the officials. The national poverty ratio has increased by 6.9 percentage points since 2018-19.
The government blamed a range of shocks for the escalation. These include three structural reforms with the International Monetary Fund, the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact, volatility in commodity prices, continuing inflation, low GDP growth, devastating floods, and policy changes like the removal of wheat support prices.
Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal is likely to be the one to disclose the new poverty figures. On the other hand, the Poverty Estimation Committee headed by G. M. Arif (Economist) has submitted their report to the government.
The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives has stated that the estimates are based on the Cost of Basic Needs (CBN) approach. The poverty threshold was re-calculated by taking into account inflation via the consumer price index. Pakistan shifted to this system after talks with the World Bank.
Previously, the country had deepened its poverty alleviation efforts, cutting it down from 50.4 percent in 2005-06 to 21.9 percent by 2018-19. Improvements were made both in rural as well as urban areas during this time.
Urban poverty was around 11 percent in 2018-19 and rural poverty was as high as 28.2 percent.
According to the latest stats, the previously observed trend of decrease has been overturned due to prolonged economic uncertainty. The officials also mentioned that they expect more insights into the national income and living standards will be available through the new Labour Force Survey.
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