Over the previous seven years, the poverty rate rose by 7.6%.

According to recent statistics, Pakistan’s poverty rate has significantly increased. The Planning Commission reports that during the past seven years, the country’s poverty rate has increased by 7.6%, with roughly 20 million additional people living below the poverty line.

After seven years, the government has finally disclosed the nation’s poverty figures. Seventy million of the 250 million individuals in the population live below the poverty level, according to the figures. The poverty rate rose 7.6 percentage points over seven years to 28.9 percent.

The research states that the poverty rate in urban regions was 17.4 percent, while it was 36.2 percent in rural areas. The poverty rate was found to be 35.3 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 47 percent in Balochistan.

The poverty rate increased to 32.6 percent in Sindh and 23.3 percent in Punjab. With the disparity rate rising to 32.7 percent, economic inequality in Pakistan has also reached its greatest point in history.

According to Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, the COVID-19 epidemic, IMF programs, and inconsistent policies were all factors in the increase in poverty. He went on to say that the population was heavily burdened by inflation, which was fuelled by the rupee’s depreciation.