Almost half of Pakistanis blame federal govt for inflation: survey
97% of the respondents said they have been affected by the price hike in Pakistan, says Ipsos survey
November 15, 2020
According to the findings of a recent survey, 49% of Pakistanis believe the incumbent government is responsible for inflation in the country.
Ipsos, is a multinational market research company, conducted a survey according to which respondents stated that price hikes have impacted all socio-economic classes in Pakistan, with those at the lowest rung of the class system suffering the most.
The survey, conducted from October 28 to November 4 with interviews of over a thousand respondents, revealed that half of the Pakistanis blame the federal government for inflation. Only 15% of the respondents said they blamed previous governments for it, a narrative the PTI and PM Imran Khan have been attempting to establish since day one in power.
A survey conducted by Ipsos has revealed that price hike has been felt across Pakistan, bottom end socio-economic classes are most worried about it, and consider the federal government responsible for it.
Forty-nine percent held the Centre responsible for the crisis, 17% considered provincial governments responsible while only 8% blamed it on an unknown mafia.
Five percent of the survey's respondents declared shopkeepers responsible and 3% each declared bureaucracy and the owners of mills responsible for the inflationary situation of the country.
The ratio of those considering the federal government responsible for inflation was the highest (59%) in Balochistan, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 58%, Punjab 46% and Sindh 44%.
The survey revealed that price hikes have affected a whopping 97% of the respondents. IPSOS asked respondents whether they are worried about increasing prices to which 88% respondents said they were. Twelve percent said they were not worried by the inflationary situation in the country.
The highest ratio of those worried by price hike was seen in Sindh with 91%, followed by KP with 89%, Punjab and Balochistan 86% each.
According to the survey, 4 in 5 Pakistanis (83%) faced cuts in their income due to the coronavirus pandemic.
