Growing public pessimism

A survey carried out last year by Gallup International shows despondency reigns supreme among the people, vis-a-vis prospects of economic betterment in the coming year. Only 13 percent of those interviewed were optimistic about economic growth in 2011, while 34 percent said that the year would be full of difficulties.
Overall, 60 percent of the respondents expressed pessimism about things to come, which is sad but not surprising. A number of reasons account for this gloomy outlook. The obvious ones being runaway inflation and its impact on the basic food items price index, poor governance, political uncertainty, and an unending stream of financial scandals involving the high and mighty of the land.
On a practical level, what reinforces this negative view of the economy are the people's day-to-day experiences. The constantly rising prices of the basic necessities of life and inflated utility bills pinch and produce cynicism. The unending energy crisis is no less worrisome. The present government has been in office for nearly three years, yet it has little to show for its efforts to overcome power outages in summers and gas outages in winters. Consequently, a large number of businesses, especially medium and small-sized ones, have suffered tremendous hardships, in many cases outright closures. That of course has increased joblessness to an alarming level (unfortunately, there is no systematic way of recording employment figures, as is the practice in most other countries), pushing more and more people below the poverty line. Then, there is the persistent violence in the nation's commercial capital, Karachi, which undermines confidence in the government's ability to improve things in the near future.
Interestingly, one of the Gallup survey findings suggests that the index of 'Net Hope' was high in 1999, but declined after the military takeover, and kept fluctuating between 2000 and 2010. This could mean the people link their sense of well-being with a political system that they see as being stable and responsive to their needs and aspirations. Political instability clearly is a significant cause of the prevailing despondency. It is a major disincentive, too, for economic expansion. So far, there is no sign of things getting any better on this score. In fact, recent developments point to a further worsening of the stability factor. Regarding governance issues as well, the government is yet to show any inclination to make the necessary amends in its behaviour. Equally important, despite the energy crisis having badly affected economic activity, there is no apparent sense of urgency to find some workable alternatives. No wonder, 'Net Hope' about the future remains low.