Coping with COVID-19 in Pakistan

This article is a chapter out of the e-book, "Impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on Islamic finance in the OIC countries" that is available as a pdf download from HERE. Read the article in the e-book for the complete set of tables, charts and references. 

The outbreak of COVID-19 amidst an already precarious economic situation has amplified challenges for Pakistan, a developing country with a per capita GDP of around $5,872 in 2019 (PPP Adjusted). The gross national income per capita remains at $1,590 as per World Bank data for 2018. Absolute poverty level has gone down in Pakistan during the first decade of the 21st century. Nonetheless, multi-dimensional poverty taking into account income as well as non-income indicators remains high at 38%, according to the United Nations Development Program (2016). With a meagre tax to GDP ratio at 12% and high current expenditures in defence and debt servicing, the government finds itself short of resources to fund development and welfare projects. The size of the financial sector is also small. Insurance penetration is less than 1% of GDP while only 23% of people are formally served with banking services through commercial banks and other institutions.