Pakistan was ranked 124rd out of 180 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2020 as compared to 120 (dropped by four spots), according to the report by Asian Development Bank
The report, ‘Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2021’ showed that Pakistan’s rural extreme poverty rate is five times higher than the urban extreme poverty rate.
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Comparing 2020 to 2019, food inflation had increased in 29 of the 41 reporting economies, of which 17 had posted food inflation of five percent or higher, according to the report.
The largest increases in food price inflation were observed mostly in lower-middle-income economies such as Pakistan (11.3 percentage points), Sri Lanka (10.6 percentage points), Kyrgyzstan (10.3 percentage points), and Bhutan (7.8 percentage points).
The economies that reported the largest declines in CPI growth rates from 2019 to 2020 were Myanmar (–5.1 percentage points), Fiji (–4.4 percentage points), Turkmenistan (–3.3 percentage points), Mongolia (–2.9 percentage points), Hong Kong, China (–2.6 percentage points), and Samoa (–2.6 percentage points). The highest increases were observed in Kyrgyzstan (5.2 percentage points), Kiribati (4.3 percentage points), Pakistan (3.4 percentage points), Afghanistan (3.3 percentage points), and Bhutan (2.9 percentage points), as revealed in the report.
It added that the pandemic is threatening Asia and the Pacific’s progress toward critical targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The pandemic pushed an estimated 75 million to 80 million more people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year as compared to what would have happened in the absence of the disease.
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Assuming that the pandemic has increased inequalities, the relative rise in extreme poverty (defined as ‘living on less than $1.90 a day’) maybe even greater. Progress has also stalled in areas such as hunger, health, and education where earlier achievements across the region had been uneven but significant.
According to the report, about 203 million people (5.2 percent) of developing Asia’s population had lived in extreme poverty in 2017. Without COVID-19, this number would have declined to an estimated 2.6 percent in 2020.
The report estimated gross national income per capita for Pakistan at $1280 in 2020 was compared to $1410 in 2019, and the GDP per capita was estimated at $1193 in 2020 compared to $1202 in 2019.
The growth rate of the manufacturing production index was estimated at negative 9.9 percent in 2020 as compared to -2.3 percent in 2019. The report estimated government taxes at 11.4 percent of the GDP in 2020 against 11.6 percent in 2019.
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The government revenue was estimated at 15.9 percent in 2020 as compared to 12.7 percent in 2019; and the government expenditure was estimated at 23.2 percent in 2020 compared to 21.5 percent in 2019.
