The public sentiment surrounding Pakistan's economic crisis is overwhelmingly negative, characterized by profound frustration and despair regarding government inefficiencies, corruption, military influence, and a disorganized political landscape. Many commenters emphasize the detrimental impact of systemic issues on the economy and express hopelessness about the future, especially among younger generations. There are also nuanced perspectives acknowledging the resilience of the Pakistani people and the hope for potential improvements through reform and unity.

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I mean it makes sense. I'd predict its much bigger than 100B given the majority of the population lives in rural areas with little to no "official governance". Try to buy land in places like Larkana, Ratodero etc. The prices are insane for cities that are so shit primarily due to black money / undocumented portions of the rural economy. It'll take a massive federal / provincial effort to bring them into the "documented economy". Its slowly happening with highways, roads, federal / provincial authorities coming into rural areas but its nowhere near what needs to happen

I never realized how much money rural areas that are largely neglected due to being "backwards" compared to cities have until I visited a couple of secluded areas in different provinces.

LordFaquaad

Nah, bro.


It is much higher. 110-120% of our nominal GDP. There have been estimates on this.


Here is a very simple indicator. Our annual minimum wage is at least 20% higher than our nominal GDP per Capita. In most documented economies, it is below  60% of the GDP per Capita.

EtcWasTakenAlready

I will never believe its 35%. Dude it has to be like 60% at minimum. Dafuq, all we do is cash dealing and dont no mfer be reporting that

[deleted]

Yes it's much more than ~30%... There's no way people are are buying boatloads of $1m homes on cash in Karachi.

Motorized23

No digital trail = no accountability

When 35% of economic activity is off the books, powerful individuals, whether politicians, generals, or bureaucrats, can move huge sums without being traced. Elites protect each other across party &amp; institutional lines. This is why you rarely see top-level punishments, only scandals. From Nawaz Sharif’s “Penthouse Pirate” label to Zardari’s Swiss accounts, to sugar cartel leaks, Pakistan has normalized elite wealth with no origin. Scandals like that FactFocus exposé on Gen. Bajwa highlight how even COAS-level figures amass billions quietly, thanks to their control over land, housing &amp; procurement... not to forget that military controls massive business empires too (Fauji Foundation, Askari Group, DHAs) which rarely pay taxes through various charity/donation loopholes. There's no effective demand for public officials (or generals) to explain their assets, unlike, say, in Scandinavian countries where public figures resign over minor violations.

In Pakistan, shadow economy doesn't just allow corruption, it institutionalizes it. &amp; when even military generals become billionaires quietly &amp; prime ministers stash assets overseas, it signals to every citizen that looting is a norm, not an exception. Until the system is digitally documented, regulated &amp; made to serve all (not just the elite), Pakistan will keep cycling through these scandals, with flashy headlines but no accountabilities / convictions.

tormenturator

That is a huge problem. Country get loans based on the economy size and if that much is not considered, then of course, we will get smaller loans.

Umair65

I’m not sure how they calculate it, but its [much higher](https://www.dawn.com/news/amp/1844541)

Mustafak2108

We love hard cash because it is not trace-able to who made the black money and converted to white.

awaixjvd

it's not 35 or 40%. it's almost 60 to 75%. like

DirectionCool7083

Its a good thing - for a country like Pakistan.

qsmrf56

dude-on-mission

Notice how the western world have nothing yet they're rich?? Because, they looted that entire central Africa that's full of riches.

No_Doctor_219

What is a shadow economy and what does this mean?

helpfulrat

Try $400-500 billion bud. It's alot higher than that.

Interesting_Sale4269

So if shadow economies consist of economic activities not being officially reported, then how are they getting this data for this infographic?

humaidm

aU_tHe_sLaYeR

[https://www.perplexity.ai/page/pakistan-s-shadow-economy-size-LZm3KDwQRB2TtEL.H.b5vw](https://www.perplexity.ai/page/pakistan-s-shadow-economy-size-LZm3KDwQRB2TtEL.H.b5vw)

pakitter

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jiska maaal ban rahahay wo chup, pti nay media ko ads kam diay, us time mehangai bhi bohat lag rahi thi or 2 gdp bohat kam tha, 

billion tree tsunami bhi hura lag raha tha. ab wohi sab halal hay. inka maal to banta rahega or phir yeh ayashi ki zindagi guzarayn gay ajzeron mayn

testingbetas

Some people don't even acknowledge this, a guy commented on FB that it's just a slang by Gen Z and people were agreeing with him.

bigasfanhead

Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global emissions. There's nothing we can do that will affect this. It's the western countries who need to control their emissions.

hotmugglehealer

Last time a person tried to work on this is in Jail. 

this video may help on individual level

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mavp6prvTAw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mavp6prvTAw)

Silver_Implement_331

Pakistan has 3% of world population but produce only 0.52 of world CO2. While top 3 CO2 producer are China, USA and India.

What can we do? Plead to them?

tmango321

I guess all we can really do on a personal level is focus on tree plantation and conserving water as much as possible. The Gov. also needs to do some serious energy reforms.

Top_Masterpiece_2053

For considering the climate change a national emergency, there must be people among those running the country who own the country.

Shaajee

sb apni kursi bachanay mien lagay huway hain

kambakhat kisi ko nazar nahi aa rha k chatt bhi girnay wali hai aur zameen bhi nikalnay wali hai

astorman59

Instead of crying about flooding, make some dams, and profit from hydro power.

Terminator857

maybe because we basically contribute nothing to the world in terms of emissions? Wth?

aaahlat

Soam I right in assessment that major areas for improvement right now are:
- Need growth of revenue in all sectors
- Need more spending on Health
- More spending on Education

I was surprised to see that tax collection has increased so much. Hopefully more sectors like retail, agriculture, property get taxed more, and the burden is lifted from salaries class.

edomyrots

Can someone help me understand this?

Why are we growing 84 million tonnes of sugarcane despite being a water-stressed country? We are the country with the highest diabetes rate in the world, our groundwater is depleting, and our climate is changing dramatically, with temperatures getting hotter and hotter. Yet, we are growing more sugarcane than cotton, wheat, and rice combined. It doesn't make sense!

the_real_DNAer

More information can be found on the [finance division's website ](https://finance.gov.pk/survey_2025.html)

Jade_Rook

Cute_Praline_5314

Only upwards from now إن شاء الله

iiKinq_Haris

wisendur

... Things look better? Let's hope our nation continues the advance to innovation and social betterment.

Latter-Hope-542

Implementing strong domestic policies will bring in more investments into Pakistan

Initial-Classroom154

"Those in Bangladesh who support Pakistan..."

If you're some extreme Bangla nationalist who wants to fight with those who want normalisation with Pakistan, you should do it in your own subs. We have enough conflicts of our own.

Lip_pe_aati_he_dua

Purple_Wash_7304

&gt;Both China and the USA view Pakistan as strategically significant in countering India, providing it with a financial safety net.

Hell no. China is not countering India. It is countering America.

AdnanHaidar

What sucks is that “economic support” you mentioned is a catch 22… yes they help keep countries that take them afloat but they also create a system of debt slavery.

You should read this book “confessions of an economic hitman”.

Adventurous-Cash2044

Insha'Allah let's pray together and hope for the best, that's all we can do at this point.

ContagiouslyAdorable

What do you mean by "Pakistan's economy is often compared unfavourably to Sri Lanka's" a bit more context? Is it positively, negatively, etc.

silent-------

Indian here ..I thought Pakistan also receives massive aid from China for that corridor thing ..but foreign aid is a double edged sword ..China gave aid to lanka and then took over their ports ..I went to lanka a.few years ago..not only did the Chinese take over their ports but all workers are Chinese and  all signs in Chinese and they behaved very rudely with local Lankans..don't be dependent on American aid..when they call in a favor , you are screwed and see how cutting off usaid is messing up countries..every country can manage 
.just has to be united and work towards common goal..most developed countries don't have border issues so they can concentrate on internal development.. Pakistan as well as India has border issues on every side , so when politicians mess up , they can invoke 'national pride' and talk about enemies and distract you from lack of internal development

Icy-Discipline-3899

If you want a serious answer the only fix is to exploit the hell out of balochistans natural resources and then build services based on profits from that.

tiger1296

- Unskilled workforce so productivity is low, even in agricultural sector 

- Low rates of tax collection so less money can be invested by Govt into economy

- Poor/outdated economic capital (machinery, factories) so output levels are low

- Immobility of workforce due to poor infrastructure &amp; transport 

- Access to education is difficult for lower income families so less skilled workers, so less people are in higher tax brackets 

That’s what i could come up with off the top of my head

Ok-Affect-5198

Summary: Low Exports, High Imports. We as a nation are so useless or skilless that we can't make anything to sell. Most people are doing non productive jobs. Even investors like to invest in non productive sectors like real estate etc.

mushakht

It comes down to feudalism

In the 1960s Pakistan was one of the fastest growing countries in the world, we had numerous emerging multi national firms and were manufacturing automobiles to washing machines

The feudals decided that this was unacceptable and a risk to their power, so they nationalized everything, then exterminated the ethnicity that owned most of these businesses and sent them packing abroad, they then systematically rewarded their criminal family members mostly in Punjab, and Pakistan never recovered

Anyways, this is the reason why Pakistan is a garbage fire now and has zero meaningful production beyond some textiles

The one non-dumpster fire business in Punjab is Engro and that’s solely because a businessman in Karachi relocated to Lahore after this entire mess of Nationalization and decided to make peace with the racist feudals in that province, he and his family ended up building LUMS and made major contributions to the province despite the persistent discrimination

nurse_supporter

Policy changing every other year. No businessman wants to bet his money on hypothesis. They want security of their money that we cannot give. Coz of continuous change in regimes since 1988. When regimes will start completing their tenures people will start investing.

Alot of the posts above are related to why india is faring better..
Well.. I have been to India twice and have worked with Indians for over a decade... we need to understand some ground realities before going further.

1.
Indian taxation system is very robust and effective

2.
Indian health insurance is 2nd to none. Infact their health insurance certifications and qualifications are 2nd best in the world.
U may ask, how does that help or account.. well.. less family or economic shocks to a family.

3.
Indian economy is reliant on 5 states.. southern states.. tamil nadu... kaerla... karnataka... andhra pradesh.. telanga...  these people are historically settled abroad and keep on doing so. They have strong regional unity and identity, especially kaerala and tamils.
Granted that to some extent, other states are strong too esp gujrat and mahrashtra.
These states thrive on their identity... get tons of foreign exchange and they invest in business more than in land. They are humble.. they are down to earth to the extent of being shameless... they save pennies.. they don't show off like we do and they help each other abroad. They bring business from abroad and all help and contribute. One needs to look at examples from only IT field to agree to it.

4.
Land reforms.. 
India implemented land reforms very soon after partition. We didn't..  as our leaders are actually land lords or land mafia.

5.
Sincere decision makers or leaders... who are either staunch Hindu supremist thus aim for Hindu glory, or economist or loyal to secularism...  Indians are one tough nation to bargain with in international agreements. Just look at the energy rates they got in late 90s or early 2000s.. and we got.

6.
Education..
Indian school board system is tough... where we started dwindwlling in 70s.. they kept on developing. Their education is far better than us and far cheaper than us. Outside India... let's say GCC... 3/4 Indians...if not more.. send children to their schools.... teaching Indian curriculum and damn cheap. E.g. in one GCC country, the most expensive Indian school is under 20k riyal/Dhs per year and there is no "comparable" pakistani school in that price. The cheapest acceptable British school is 35k per annum.in short we spend more on basic education .. British curriculum... we save less and we then spend more again on university education.. money which cud have been sent back or used mainly for business/investments/stocks (for indians) and for us, if we do save.. plot

7.
 Finally, the will to grow and make things themselves.. helped through policies.. tycoons and regional identity.. be it vehicles (cars.. buses.. motorbikes)... pharmaceutical.. biotechnology... insurance... IT.. and consumer items.

To conclude..
 it's a mixture of high education to masses... not only rich..  huge economy or population.. the 5 southern states.. and most of all..  good/sincere leadership.. who participated in partition or who believed in an ideology and not like us who ended up with leaders who got everything in plate and we insulted and ridiculed our leaders from pre-partition era. And our ideological leaders are a namoona of its own.. be it munawar sahib of jamat e islami... maulana diesel sahib.. tablighi jamat leadership or other national leaders from sindh (jiye sindh etx).. punjab (siraiki party or south punjab) or hazara.

Ok-Newt9648

"While India chased investors, we chased scandals."
-some idiot

Anytime a new innovation was introduced in Pakistan, those at the top were more concerned with how to exploit it for their own benefit rather than focus on the country at large.

Factor that in with the fact that we suffer extreme fanaticism that further hinders progress by scaring away potential foreign investors.

And the cherry on top is our nation is more divided by design where everyone wants to hoard as much as they can for themselves while never giving back to the community and there you go.

Of course there's more to it than that, I'm sure someone more educated than me on the topic will elaborate further but these are some factors I personally hold responsible for the reason our country suffers.

asfandope

Reasons behind India Growth:

Stable Democracy 

a very hard working population 

Less extremism

a degree of decentralisation

Caught the IT wave

Population Control(Fertility Rate 2.0)

Judicial Independence

Turbulent_Compote_63

If you are looking for a detailed answer I would recommend reading "Why nations fail" by economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. They won this year's Nobel prize after providing a very deep explanation of economic disparity between nations who are sitting on a gold mine and economically lagging whereas those who are a bit challenged still keep growing. I haven't read it yet but listened to a quick podcast about it.

Essentially to cut it short, it's all about institutions like government, judiciary and legislature which are respected and grow the country forward. What the Nobel prize was for showing different historical and current examples that good institutions lead to richer nations instead of rich nations being able to afford good institutions and the proposed countermeasures to grow these institutions.

WaterBottleDuty

1.
Myopic approach... We plan for 3 to 5 years (at most)....

2.
No concept of vertical spread or horizontal spread in future...

3.
Easy money is best money.. so better to import than do hard work and labour for a few yrs before minting money

4.
Nationalisation by bhutto

5.
Army role in politics... economy and decision

6
Non satiable appetite of zardari and ganja 

7.
Might is right in pakistan. For masses...respect is directly proportional to money and might.

8.
Education was made an industry

9.
Most of all... no rule of law..
 i.e. corrupt leaders.. sellable judges.. incompetent bureaucracy

4 reasons

1-Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's nationalisation ransacked our growing industrial base and (foreign+local) investor's confidence so much that we haven't recovered from its aftershocks until today. Indian industries from that era have turned into Giants like Tata Birla, Reliance etc. But JIYE BHUTTO anyway 🤤

2- Shaukat Aziz shifted our fragile (post nuclear test sanctioned) economy to a consumer empowered one (consumer loans + financing consumption) instead of supporting industries. Power crisis in the upcoming Zardari tenor further pushed our competitively disadvantaged inustries to either shift overseas or outsource. Again, "Jiye BHUTTO!"

3- Terrorism and insurgency as a result of American war on terror. A major setback for our international image and any hopes for political stability. This has been exacerbated by our enemy to the East and a porous border to the West.

4- Our failure to recognize that we are primarily an agricultural country on its way to industrialisation. Any competitive advantage we had, have or will have will stem from our agricultural output e.g our world class Rice, Textiles and Leather will all depend on agricultural inputs. WE CRIMINALLY NEGLECTED OUR AGRICULTURE  AND ARE DOING SO EVEN TODAY.

Glittering-Profit-36

Indian economy may appear a bit better than Pak but it's not SUBSTANTIALLY better in terms of per capita GDP. However India is on a better track than Pak and hence the gap is increasing day by day. 


IMHO The key difference makers are:


1) Political stability


2) Priorities


In 1947, Pakistan had the advantage of highly fertile land than the leftover India. In fact till early 90s, Pak had a higher per capita GDP than india.


However, Pak consistently made many wrong choices under the guise of religion or whatever superiority complex. One major set of such decisions costed them Bangladesh. The Afghanistan affairs did no good. On the name of Kashmir, lot of resources are being wasted even today. And of course, the pathological hatered against India didn't help at all.


War is an expensive hobby. Be it a direct war or a an indirect one by funding your "non state actors". It costs money. And yeah, the same guys will bring that war to your own country too. There is nothing like a good terrorist and bad terrorist.




Then comes the political stability. The never ending list of military coups and indirect control of army on the elected govt. Now in the hands of China, the debt trap will tighten up like a python squeezing its prey. When the political strength is missing, the whole world wants to exploit your weaknesses like vultures. End of the day, the politicians will settle abroad, save up in swiss banks and the commoners will suffer.


Some people blame corruption in Pakistan. But Indian govt officers are no saints either. 

The only difference is that there is a fair political stability and war (direct / indirect) is not a state policy. The priorities are better. Hence are the outcomes. 

NoExpression1030

Glass_Performer_5767

Good question... which neighbour exactly?

Ok_Fox8050

1- Indian economy flourished after 90s economic reforms. Pakistan didn’t do reforms. India has political stability so private sector flourishes. 

2- Until 2000s start, Pakistan had better per capita income than India. 

3- Our economy is not that behind, A large part of our economy is not documented. We should not look upto India as a benchmark. They are still largely a poor country. 

4- Pakistan should target Vietnam, Taiwan, UAE style open and liberal economic reforms.

SadManUnitedFan

pmln ruling for decades, ppp and mqm and JUI + voldemorts (most responsible)

MrBarret63

Please clarify reasons behind comparison to India?
Vast difference in population, size, GDP etc. 
How about comparing Pakistani economy with Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran?

pughlaa

Multiple reasons. 
- No economic reforms
- No strategic effort to sustainably increase output
- Outdated economic capital
- A very large undocumented economy 
- Prolonged political instability 
- Poor economic management 
- Inability to counter negative fiscal deficit over the years
- Employing efforts and capital into unproductive sectors
- No focus on improving quality of education, developing human capital and vocational education 
- Lack of motivation to actually solve the problems at the root
- No long term planning

fad_as

Have you been living in a case for the last 75 years? Geez boy.... Wake up!

jaguar786

Lack of meritocracy.

The whole country is run by mafias and I mean it.

Heavy-Candidate7017

There is no informed, enlightened Pakistani who can answer this question.

Believe in the uniform, only trust an answer from our army generals, because they know all there is to know, what is good for you and me. Hail asim munir. hail asim munir, hail asim munir.

kayotesden_theone

Bro - they invested in land reforms and broke away power from the fuedal that had supported the colonisers. They had elections 5 years after independence. 


Meanwhile we had our first general elections in 1970. Before then the fuedal elite and thier uniformed allies took decades taking control. 


They are run like a country - we are run like a colony. The aim of nearly every one of our governments is to siphon off resources to take abroad and to maintain control of the cash cow.

Bunkerlala

I doubt somone has an answer for this 😔

Friendly-Parsley11

Living on borrowed money is easier than working to earn.

meshuggahfan

Because when your leaders live outside the country and cry "Jahmuriyat, Democracy" It will only go backwards.

Its all about priorities, especially of those holding the power. So when leaders are corrupt then it trickles down to executives and further.  
  
When people stop gaining right knowledge, stop doing authentic fact checks / research and vulgar + roast + crude humor / memes / comedy becomes 24/7 routine then the brain is desensitized about the morality of society and self respect. So it becomes difficult to differentiate the left from right and in that time people are vulnerable so whatever the agenda is sold to a weak brain, then voila - the herd mentality kicks in. This reflect the state of the art political social and economic condition of Pakistan.

Fhassan47

There are many reasons but one stands out the most. 

Pakistani do not manufacture goods of value that bring in dollars. Sure we do have agriculture and some other stuff but we are about 100 years behind in manufacturing.

Every_Friend_8817

ISBRogue

because our government fuckin sucks. they want to keep money to themselves

Next-Moose-9129

SkinnyOptions

too much interference by aliens and paranormal forces

Pakistan has focused too much on the profiting off the appeal of its real estate to foreign countries rather than focusing on creating a society that creates value for its own citizens. Pakistan should stop focusing on pandering to the United States and China. Both china and the us are using Pakistan for their own gains even if it is at the risk of Pakistani well being. The United States used Pakistan as a training ground for Afghanistan and with that came a lot of militant extremists. China is putting Pakistan in a debt trap and wants to seize the gwadar port.

Also, Pakistan should focus on building ties with India rather than fighting more wars with India. Look at what Bangladesh did during the hasina rule when it came to building ties with india. Sure it wasn’t perfect but Bangladesh’s economy grew a lot. It was  unfortunately toppled by the U.S. government.

anonymousman898

Well states like Gujarat,Tamil Nadu,Kerala , Karnataka,Delhi, Maharashtra will all hit 25000 usd plus gdp per capita in 20-30 years so that helps India gdp grow a lot .

Even_Possibility_591

India is growing and the trend is upwards but not as fast as .china but In 20-30 years timeframe there will be significant progress when we look back.

Compare gdp growth from 1947, percentage growth is almost the same with the neighboring endia

jeanne-_-dar-c

Interesting_Cash_774

I wouldn't say it's "so far behind", as India itself is a very poor country. But the gap might increase over the next 10 years as India is seeing growth while Pakistan has stagnated because of political turmoil.

Key_Agent_3039

Gold-Act-7366

Because what we sell most of it isn't in demand by others. If you're part of the globalized economy but don't sell what others want then it ain't gna fly.

Another example is GCC nations who dont have as much as Pakistan in terms of productivity locally but have oil which everyone wants so they are moving forward.

Liverpool1900

Wsy sare baat theek kr rhe, I agree with most their points


Lekin size bhi tu deekho bhaiii

Poodina

The difference is not too big. India gdp per Capita is 2500$ our is 1700$. Its not a big difference. You from UK, You know how much tax you guy pays, now compare to Pakistan. No one, gives income tax. Income is all in cash. And then ppl complain we want US/UK living standards.

Chance-Piano7561

Pakistan is experiencing a severe economic crisis, with a notable surge in the trade deficit and declining exports.

Pakistan Economic Crisis

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