Pakistan poverty surges to 43.5pc

KARACHI, Mar 29 (Express Tribune): Poverty in Pakistan has surged to 43.5 per cent, according to the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), indicating a far graver situation than official estimates by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and the Planning Commission, which place poverty at 28.9 per cent.
In its report, the SPDC, a policy research institute, underscores that urban households have borne the brunt of the increase, with poverty rising faster in cities than in rural areas.
The report attributes the 14.6 per cent disparity between SPDC and official figures to differences in methodology. The PBS relies on a Cost of Basic Needs approach, updating historical poverty lines using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which largely reflects the consumption patterns of better-off households. This approach often underestimates the real cost of living for low-income families and overlooks essential expenses such as healthcare and access to clean water.
In contrast, the SPDC adopts a calorific, or Food Energy Intake, approach, linking household spending to minimum calorie requirements for basic subsistence. This method uses adult-equivalent units, adjusting for household composition, and estimates separate thresholds for urban (2,230 calories) and rural (2,550 calories) populations. The resulting monthly poverty line for 2024-25 is Rs13,476 in urban areas and Rs10,283 in rural areas, significantly higher than the official Rs8,484.
The SPDC analysis, based on the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2024-25, shows that national poverty has risen from 36.6 per cent in 2018-19 to 43.5 per cent in 2024-25. Urban poverty increased by 10 per centage points, from 32.1 per cent to 42.1 per cent, while rural poverty rose by five per centage points, from 39.3 per cent to 44.3 per cent.