Coronavirus threatens to put 27 million people out of work: National Economic Survey

Coronavirus threatens to put 27 million people out of work: National Economic Survey

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - A special section on coronavirus has been included in the National Economic Survey Report. The survey highlights aspects such as 56.6% of the country’s population becoming socially and economically insecure due to the coronavirus and female labor force in the country being reduced.

According to the survey, 56.6% of the country’s population faces social and economic insecurity due to the pandemic. Women and children are most likely to be affected by the virus, which is expected to leave 27 million people jobless.

The partial lockdown is expected to put 15.5 million people out of work in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors while in the event of a complete lockdown, 19.1 million people could be unemployed.

According to the report, there is a danger of more people being unemployed in wholesale and retail trade and the virus may affect the state of employment of overseas Pakistanis to a great extent. Also, there is a danger of women becoming unemployed due to the closure of schools and colleges.

According to the survey, coronavirus will reduce the number of female labor force in the country, FBR’s tax collections will suffer and the budget deficit is expected to reach 9.4 percent, also affecting the country’s exports.

In one year, the number of buffaloes in the country increased by 1.2 million, from 40 million to 41.2 million. In one year, the number of sheep rose by 300,000, increasing from 3.09 million to 3.12 million.

The number of goats has increased by 2.1 million, rising from 76.1 million to 78.2 million and the number of horses, camels and mules has not increased.

The economic survey report further said that the economic growth rate was estimated at 3.3% before the Coronavirus, but after the outbreak it was negative 0.4%. Coronavirus affected the growth of agricultural, services and industrial sectors. Investment also affected while 42 million students going to educational institutions were directly affected.

The growth rate of major industrial sectors declined by 5.4% and the mining sector shrunk by 8.8%. Tax revenue was Rs 3,300 billion from July to April, seeing an increase of 10.8%. From July to March, non-tax revenue increased by 30% to Rs 1,095 billion.