'Half of population still lives in highly poor condition'

There is hardly any trickle down effect of the government claimed high economic growth has been observed as half of the population still lives in highly poor condition, meanwhile 18.49 percent is reported worse.
The data on Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) Survey 2006-07 released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) on Thursday. The data showed that 51.52 per cent households in 2006-07 compared to 51.51 per cent in 2004-05 reported no change in their economic situation.
18.49 per cent households reported their economic situation worse in 2006-07 compared to 18.73 per cent in 2004-05. While 2.86 per cent said economic situation worsened in 2006-07 against 3.59 per cent in 2004-05.
The third round of PSLM survey covering 73,953 households across urban and rural communities reported that economic situation of 24.04 per cent households got better and 2.95 per cent were much better.
The survey provides information on key indicators at national and provincial levels with urban and rural background in comparison with the information of the earlier rounds of PSLM in order to assess the trends. The overall province-wise analysis of the data showed economic situation of 50.61 per cent households in Punjab, 56.91 per cent in Sindh, 41.07 percent in NWFP and 64.73 per cent in Balochistan remained unchanged.
Whereas 17.97 percent households in Punjab, 20.64 percent in Sindh, 19.44 percent in NWFP and 10.02 percent in Balochistan showed hat economic situation of the said provinces worsen during the period under review. 2.46 percent households in Punjab, 3.20 in Sindh, 4.35 in NWFP and 1.87 percent in Balochistan reported much worse economic condition.
However, 25.69 percent households in Punjab, 17.16 per cent in Sindh, 30.60 per cent in NWFP and 21.32 per cent in Balochistan reported improvement in their economic situation and 3.12 per cent in Punjab, 1.07 per cent in Sindh, 4.50 per cent in NWFP and 1.67 per cent in Balochistan reported their economic situation in much better position. The economic situation of 51.06 per cent households in urban areas remained unchanged, while 18.12 per cent were worse and 2.69 percent were much worse state. In rural areas 51.76 percent households were reported same, 18.68 percent worse and 2.95 percent much worse.
However, in urban areas 24.16 percent household reported better economic situation and 3.79 percent much better, while in rural areas 23.98 percent said to have been in better economic situation and 2.51 percent in much better position.