[Pakistan] Strong economic growth led to decline in poverty: Aziz

from The Pakistan Daily times

By Fida Hussain

ISLAMABAD: Strong economic growth over the past four years has reduced poverty from 34.46 percent in 2000-01 to 23.9 percent in 2004-05, while the urban poverty level declined from 22.7 percent to 14.9 percent and rural poverty decreased from 39.26 percent, claimed Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in his address to the National Economic Council (NEC) on Wednesday.

However, the figure of 34.46 percent of people living below poverty line has been confusing, as according to another survey in 2000-01, poverty level was reported at 32 percent. Akram Malik, Planning and Development Division secretary, while responding to a question, admitted that the poverty level was 34.46 percent in 2001, contrary to the earlier claims of the government that poverty was at 32 percent.

He said, “However, you cannot term it fudging because the difference was only two percent,” adding that the base had been changed at that time. The secretary refused to give any further detail on the basic formula used for assessing the poverty level. He said an economic survey would be announced in a few days and people would know the exact situation. The other disturbing fact that the prime minister revealed was the increase in imports. Imports are up by 40.4 percent, while exports by 17.8 percent in the first ten months of the current fiscal year.

The overall GDP growth, estimated by the National Economic Council (NEC), has been placed at 6.6 percent in the current fiscal, in which the contribution of agriculture is 0.55 percent, industry 1.54 percent and services 4.51 percent.