Economy - overview:
Pakistan, an impoverished and underdeveloped country, has suffered
from decades of internal political disputes, low levels of foreign
investment, and a costly, ongoing confrontation with neighboring
India. However, IMF-approved government policies, bolstered by
generous foreign assistance and renewed access to global markets
since 2001, have generated solid macroeconomic recovery the last
three years. The government has made substantial macroeconomic
reforms since 2000, although progress on more politically sensitive
reforms has slowed. For example, in the third and final year of its
$1.3 billion IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility, Islamabad
has continued to require waivers for energy sector reforms. While
long-term prospects remain uncertain, given Pakistan's low level of
development, medium-term prospects for job creation and poverty
reduction are the best in nearly a decade. Islamabad has raised
development spending from about 2% of GDP in the 1990s to 4% in
2003, a necessary step towards reversing the broad underdevelopment
of its social sector. GDP growth, spurred by double-digit gains in
industrial production over the past year, has become less dependent
on agriculture. Foreign exchange reserves continued to reach new
levels in 2004, supported by robust export growth and steady worker
remittances.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$347.3 billion (2004 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
6.1% (2004 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $2,200 (2004 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 22.6%
industry: 24.1%
services: 53.3% (2004 est.)
Labor force:
45.43 million
note: extensive export of labor, mostly to the Middle East, and use
of child labor (2004 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 42%, industry 20%, services 38% (2004 est.)
Unemployment rate:
8.3% plus substantial underemployment (2004 est.)
Population below poverty line:
32% (FY00/01 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 4.1% highest 10%: 27.6% (FY96/97)