ISLAMABAD: A survey of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed that in Pakistan 35 percent of population which is 10 years of age and older (approximately 55.74 million) was working before the onset of Covid-19, but due to the closure of activities after lockdowns, it is observed that this had declined to 22 percent (35.04 million approximately).

However, it is found that the recovery process started and 33 percent of population reported working after April–July 2020 i.e. approximately 52.56 million - almost a V-shape recovery.

The PBS briefed the Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar during his visit to the bureau.

The minister chaired a meeting on the initiative taken by the PBS regarding designing of a decision support system for inflation and the results of special survey to evaluate impact of the Covid-19 on wellbeing of people, here in Islamabad on Thursday.

The minister was also briefed about the results of the survey conducted by the PBS to evaluate the impact of the Covid-19, on the wellbeing of the people.

In this survey information related to employment, income, remittances, food insecurity, health, coping strategies adopted by the household, and assets to compile wealth quintiles has been collected.

It is found that livelihood of 17.07 million households were affected due to lockdown restrictions, evidence suggests that if strict lock down had continued, devastating impacts may have been observed on the vulnerable groups of workers and their families.

In compliance with the prime minister’s vision of ‘Digital Pakistan,’ followed by the guidance of the Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, the PBS has developed a Decision Support System for Inflation (DSSI), which would enable the policy makers, National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC), provincial governments and district administration to take evidence-based policy decision, and address causes of inflation in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021