Suchergebnisse

This paper aims to clarify the confusion over estimates of poverty in Pakistan1. The paper highlights the root causes of the confusion in the existing literature, which are based on estimates from the "nationally representative" data collected by the Federal Bureau of Statistics Household Integrated Economic Surveys (HIES). The paper uses the latest available HIES 2010-11 to illustrate and clarify these issues. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; CRP2; PSSP ; DSGD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

The global food crisis of mid-2000s resulted in a several-fold
increase in the prices of essential food items. Resultantly, the
incidence of food insecurity, hunger, and poverty has increased in many
developing countries [Ivanic and Martin (2008); Harttgen and Klasen
(2012); De Hoyos and Medvedev (2009); World Bank (2010); Regmi and Seale
(2010); Andreyeva, et al. (2010). Pakistan is also hit hard by this
crisis. Prices of several food items increased by more than a 100
percent since 2006-07. Consequently, nearly half of the population is
currently unable to meet its minimum (subsistence) caloric requirements
for healthy and productive living [Malik, et al. (2014)]. A large
proportion of household expenditure is spent on food (on average about
48 percent in 2010) and thus very little is left for the other
expenditures necessary for human welfare, such as, health and education.
Moreover, dietary diversity is extremely limited. Nearly 70 percent of
food expenditure is on cereals, dairy, sweeteners, and fats. Wheat is
the major source of calories, providing about half of the total daily
calories [Malik, et al. (2014)]. However, the price of wheat increased
by 125 percent between 2005-6 and 2010-11. Existing analyses indicate
that these price shocks entail significant additional expenditures to
maintain their pre-crisis consumption levels [Haq, et al. (2008);
Friedman, Hong, and Xiaohui (2011)]. There is thus overwhelming evidence
that rising food prices and the decline in real wages have serious
implications for poverty, food security, and nutrition through food
consumption patterns in the country