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 4 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 32 years.

GNP: $43.2 billion, per capita $409; real growth rate 5.1% (FY89)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 11% (FY89)

Unemployment rate: 4% (FY89 est.)

Budget: revenues $7.5 billion; expenditures $10.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $2.3 billion (FY89 est.)

Exports: $4.5 billion (f.o.b., FY89); commodities--rice, cotton, textiles, clothing; partners--EC 31%, US 11%, Japan 11% (FY88)

Imports: $7.2 billion (f.o.b., FY89); commodities--petroleum, petroleum products, machinery, transportation, equipment, vegetable oils, animal fats, chemicals; partners--EC 26%, Japan 15%, US 11% (FY88)

External debt: $17.4 billion (1989)

Industrial production: growth rate 3% (FY89)

Electricity: 7,575,000 kW capacity; 29,300 million kWh produced, 270 kWh per capita (1989)

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

Agriculture: 24% of GNP, over 50% of labor force; world's largest contiguous irrigation system; major crops--cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, and vegetables; livestock products--milk, beef, mutton, eggs; self-sufficient in food grain

Illicit drugs: illicit producer of opium poppy and cannabis for the international drug trade; government eradication efforts on poppy cultivation of limited success; 1988 output of opium and hashish each estimated at about 200 metric tons

Aid: (including Bangladesh before 1972) US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-88), $4.2 billion authorized (excluding what is now Bangladesh); Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1980-87), $7.5 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $2.3 billion; Communist countries (1970-88), $2.9 billion

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

Exchange rates: Pakistani rupees (PRs) per US$1--21.420 (January 1990), 20.541 (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 1990 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Pakistan Economy 1990 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Pakistan Economy 1990 should be addressed to the CIA.