Festive celebrations on empty pockets

Imaginative Pakistanis adjusted to make the most of their trimmed Eid budgets and celebrate the biggest festival of the Muslim calendar. Where there was a need, parents swallowed the pride, even endangered life, to access whatever resources they could garner from wherever possible to buy joy for children and participate in festivities. Eid economy, marketeers projected, shrunk uniformly by about 40 per cent online and offline to about Rs432 billion in 2023, the lowest in a decade. Spending on the holy occasion was highest in 2018 when the Eid economy crossed a trillion mark to clock at Rs1.1 trillion. The expenditure dropped in subsequent years with the economic slowdown and dipped to less than half of the highest mark of Rs480bn in 2021 amidst lockdowns, sanctions on social gatherings and Covid fears.