[Pakistan] Poverty rate drops by 6.7 percent: PM Aziz

from GEO Pakistan News

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Tuesday country's poverty ratio has lowered by 6.7 percent, whereas unemployment ratio by six percent.

Addressing to the National Economic Council here today, the prime minister said inflation rate had increased by 32.1 percent, which has now gone down to 25.4 percent.

He said unemployment rate in urban areas has descended from 22.7 percent to 17.2 percent, while that in rural areas decreased from 39 percent to 31.8 percent.

During the current fiscal year the rate of economic development was expected to fluctuate between 6 to 7 percent and GDP rate was possible to rise to 7 percent, up from 6.5, he informed.

Mr Aziz said under the Vision 2030 energy, water and food security, logistic uplift, strengthening of supply system and attainment of latest technology would be key areas of focus of this government.

During last 14 months the Karachi Stock Exchange 100-index has witnessed rise of 57.3 percent. On the other hand, public debt rate in the GDP dropped by 55.7 percent and around 5.5 million jobs were given in different sectors, he highlighted.