Unequal economic progress

The World Bank said in a report released last week that the poverty rate in Pakistan stood at 40.5 per cent. That means about 100 million out of 240m plus Pakistanis are living on less than $3.65 per day as per the purchasing power parity of 2017. In simple words, 100m Pakistanis cannot use their daily income to buy today with what they could have bought with $3.65 in 2017. Hence, they are considered poor. At the current exchange rate, $3.65 roughly equals Rs1,000. One can only imagine what goods or services a Pakistani citizen could buy with this amount in a day, or what kind of life an individual earning Rs30,000 per month can live in today’s Pakistan.