Pakistan regionally

WE lag economically even in South Asia. This lag is well-known but not its huge scale. To display that, I compare Saarc economies using World Bank data which runs up to 2022 and thus excludes our poor 2023 data. I focus on the state we left (India) and the one that left us (Bangladesh) to show our lag even against ones with similar DNAs. GDP: South Asia (mean), Bangladesh and India’s GDP per capita in 2022 were about $2,200, $2,700 and $2,300, but ours was only $1,600. Their 10-year mean GDP growths were about six per cent but ours only 4.4pc and inflation was 5.3pc, 6.2pc and 5.6pc. Ours was 8pc (and 30pc inflation in 2023). The investment-GDP ratio of the other three is 30pc but ours only 15pc. Only high investment and productivity ensure long-term high GDP growth. Our low ratio shows that our brief growth spurts under Musharraf, the PML-N and PTI came from high fiscal and external deficits and money supply growth and caused economic crises in 2008, 2018 and 2023.