Overview: Pakistan is a poor Third World country faced with the usual problems of rapidly increasing population, sizable government deficits, and heavy dependence on foreign aid. In addition, the economy must support a large military establishment and provide for the needs of 3.5 million Afghan refugees. A real economic growth rate averaging 5-6% in recent years has enabled the country to cope with these problems. Almost all agriculture and small-scale industry is in private hands, and the government seeks to privatize a portion of the large-scale industrial enterprises now publicly owned. In December 1988 Pakistan signed a three-year economic reform agreement with the IMF, which provides for a reduction in the government deficit and a liberalization of trade in return for further IMF financial support. The so-called Islamization of the economy has affected mainly the financial sector, for example, a prohibition on certain types of interest payments. Pakistan almost certainly will make little headway against its population problem; at the current rate of growth, population would double in 27 years.

GNP: $39.4 billion, per capita $370; real growth rate 4.9% (FY88)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 6.3% (FY88)

Unemployment rate: 3.6% (FY87)

Budget: revenues $5.8 billion; expenditures $9.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $2.5 billion (FY87 est.)

Exports: $4.3 billion (f.o.b., FY88); @m5commodities--rice, cotton, textiles, clothing; @m5partners--EC 31%, US 11%, Japan 11% (FY88)

Imports: $6.9 billion (f.o.b., FY88); @m5commodities--petroleum, petroleum products, machinery, transportation, equipment, vegetable oils, animal fats, chemicals; @m5partners--EC 26%, Japan 15%, US 11% (FY88)

External debt: $17.2 billion (1987)

Industrial production: growth rate 7.6% (FY88)

Electricity: 6,900,000 kW capacity; 29,000 million kWh produced, 270 kWh per capita (1988)

Industries: textiles, food processing, beverages, petroleum products, construction materials, clothing, paper products, international finance, shrimp

Agriculture: cotton, rice, wheat, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables; an illegal producer of opium poppy and cannabis for the international drug trade

Aid: NA

Currency: Pakistani rupee (plural--rupees); 1 Pakistani rupee (PRe) = 100 paisa

Exchange rates: Pakistani rupees (PRs) per US$1--18.942 (January 1989), 18.003 (1988), 17.399 (1987), 16.648 (1986), 15.928 (1985)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

NOTE: The information regarding Pakistan on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Pakistan Economy 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Pakistan Economy 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.