According to a consumer confidence survey conducted in November by Ipsos which is a Paris-based market research and consulting firm, majority of Pakistanis believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
It is pertinent to note that the survey included the participation of 1,110 male and female respondents above the age of 18 from across the country, concluded that 87 per cent of them were of the opinion that Pakistan was moving in the wrong direction, a sharp increase from 66pc participants who believed so in the September 2021 survey and the highest ever since August 2019.
The survey report, based on the results stated that “the public sentiment about [the] overall direction of the country has hit its lowest ever.”
According to the results, when the participants were asked about the state of economy, only five per cent of the respondents deemed it to be “strong”. More than 40pc termed it “weak” and over 50pc were of the view that it was “neither strong nor weak”.
An “acute majority” of the participants, 64pc of them, expected the economy to remain weak in the next six months and just 12pc were hopeful about the economy getting stronger. Meanwhile, 24pc of the participants said the economy would neither weaken or strengthen in the coming few months.
The survey report, hence, concluded: “After seeing an all-time high in September 2021, the current economic situation perception has hit rock bottom.”
In September’s survey, around 20pc of the participants had termed the then economic situation “strong”.
Moreover, a mere five per cent of the participants in this month’s survey rated their current financial situation as “strong”. Over 40pc of them said their personal financial situation was “weak” and close to 50pc described their financial situation as “neither strong nor weak”.
Similarly, just 13pc of them were optimistic about their financial situation improving over the next six months, while 63pc lacked this confidence and 24pc believed that their personal financial situation would neither strengthen nor weaken.