Balochistan’s household income growing faster than other provinces: Survey

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Balochistan has the lowest average household income, yet it grew that number faster than any other province in the last five years, a survey of the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey 2018-2019 revealed. 

The survey, which conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and published by a local media house, showed that the average household income in Balochistan grew by 21% since June 2014 when the last edition was published. \

This is the highest growth rate for any province but it remained at the bottom with the lowest household income of Rs 36,387 per month. Punjab led with Rs 42,861 closely followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) while Sindh was in the middle of the two extremes, shows the Household Integrated Economic Survey, which was launched in 1963 and became part of PSLM in 2004. 

The overall trend for average monthly income at the household level showed an increase of 16.5% to Rs 41,545 in the five years under review. 

The report also shows incomes of the first quintile or the poorest segment grew much faster (by 12 percentage points) than that of the fifth quintile, the richest segment. 

The latest HIES exercise covered 24,809 households and collected information about their income, savings, liabilities, and consumption expenditure and consumption patterns at the national and provincial levels with an urban-rural breakdown. 

The average monthly consumption expenditure increased 14% since the 2014 survey to Rs 37,159 in fiscal year 2019. 

The breakdown of income segments shows a wide gap in average consumption expenditure between the first quintile (the group with the lowest consumption) and the fifth quintile, those whose consumption expenditure is the highest. 

A similar trend emerged in the provincial breakdown where the urban population’s consumption was 37% higher than their rural counterparts. “Wages and salaries is still the largest component of household income,” the report said, noting it accounts for 42% of household income. 

“Non-agriculture activities and Wages & Salaries showed increasing trends whereas dependence of household income on crop production and livestock is decreasing over the time,” it said.