Are Pakistanis really poor?

[SaadH]

Pakistan doesn't have at least 200 million of the world's most severely malnourished people. india does:

Feeding India | Making India Malnutrition Free

Feeding India, by Eternal Foundation, serves daily nutritious meals to end child malnutrition in India.

www.feedingindia.org

Sort out your own problems before you criticise other nations and races.

Pakistan has 50 million of those which on per capita basis is higher than India.

 

[AjayGhatak]

One should look at median wealth per adult to meaningfully comment on the wealth of a nation's people. This article is focusing more on income and expenditure. Which is fine but "poor" or "rich" is also a much bigger function of wealth. For Pakistan, it is rather interesting...

According to Global Wealth Databook :

https://rev01ution.red/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/global-wealth-databook-2023-ubs.pdf

In 2015, per adult median wealth of Pakistan was : 2160 USD.
In 2022, per adult median wealth of Pakistan was : 2076 USD.

Not denying that Pakistani spend a lot of money. But their wealth accumulation is rather stagnant for most of the people or declining perhaps.

This tells us that Pakistanis perhaps live more richly and save less. Which will explain the author's observation. Compared to the rest of the world... Pakistanis do not believe as much in savings.

This means, their houses will be better looking, they will be eating better, they will have better looking cities and infrastructure...

BUT when it comes to investment in industry etc, they will have much less to show for. Which is also the case. Pakistan is not know for any major industry : Goods or services.

Gross domestic savings (% of GDP) - Pakistan, World​

World Bank Open Data

Free and open access to global development data

data.worldbank.org

So... Pakistani are more prone to improve their quality of life at the expense of their future stability.

@Nilgiri You opinion?

 

[Faani83]

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[AjayGhatak]

Goverment of pak is poor due to pathetic tax collection system .i think people of pak are doing fine if not good.

No. They are not doing fine. They are spending a lot without enough income and having not enough savings.

 

[agidest]

@Faani83

The data you have is absolutely correct. For most of the post 1971 period, PAK has the highest GDP per capita, followed by IND and BD. Somewhere in the mid 2000s overtook PAK and now BD has. There is however a catch. Consumption expenditure as part of GDP is much higher than IND or BD which is why your data shows (correctly) that PAK has a fairly good consumption level.

There is a downside to it though. It means the savings rate is much lower (around 10% compared to 30% in IND and BD). The implication of this is twofold

Pak is much more vulnerable to any external shock than IND or BD, since there is limited savings.
Lower savings and capital formation means economic growth is much lower which is why lately PAK is trailing IND and BD in economic growth.

Regards

I was about to point this out. The author says there is high consumption in Pakistan equivalent to countries that have nearly double the GDP per capita, its because those economies also have a higher savings rate.

The behaviour of the government will also be replicated by the population/society from which the government comes. There is high consumption and spending and very little savings which ultimately drives investment and productivity.

I think there is a crisis in Pakistan of savings and investment which their Government (i.e., Military) needs to work on. Without this, regardless of any cash injections from other countries, Pakistan will not become self sufficient.

On a personal level - I remember the days that Pakistanis used to feel proud that they spend more money and had 'better things' than Indians and mocked us as miserly. Those savings at an individual level contributed to the national savings rate which translated to heavy investments.

 

[UKBengali]

I was about to point this out. The author says there is high consumption in Pakistan equivalent to countries that have nearly double the GDP per capita, its because those economies also have a higher savings rate.

The behaviour of the government will also be replicated by the population/society from which the government comes. There is high consumption and spending and very little savings which ultimately drives investment and productivity.

I think there is a crisis in Pakistan of savings and investment which their Government (i.e., Military) needs to work on. Without this, regardless of any cash injections from other countries, Pakistan will not become self sufficient.

On a personal level - I remember the days that Pakistanis used to feel proud that they spend more money and had 'better things' than Indians and mocked us as miserly. Those savings at an individual level contributed to the national savings rate which translated to heavy investments.

World Bank Open Data

Free and open access to global development data

data.worldbank.org