In: Economics
Look at the newspapers of Pakistan for the past few days. What new economic statistics have been released? How do you interpret these statistics?
Pakistan’s economic freedom score is 54.8, making its economy the 135th freest in the 2020 Index. Its overall score has decreased by 0.2 point because of a drop in the fiscal health score. Pakistan is ranked 32nd among 42 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is well below the regional and world averages.
The Pakistani economy has been mostly unfree since the inception of the Index in 1995. GDP growth, however, has been vigorous for the past five years, led by exports of cotton textiles.
Economic freedom in Pakistan is impeded by inadequate protection of property rights and the government’s failure to enforce anticorruption statutes and laws against crimes like money laundering and financing of terrorism. Regulatory inefficiencies, complex labor laws, and an unreliable security situation continue to burden the business environment. High tariffs reduce the buying power of average Pakistanis’ income and hurt efforts to reduce poverty.