Impact of Corona on Pakistan’s Economy

Pakistan’s economy just started towards stability, when this pandemic struck the country and country’s recovery process is expected to derail. At first when this virus out breaks in china so it also had a negative impact on Pakistan economy because there are many products that were imported from china and china has closed their exports so there was a massive impact on Pakistan business. For example, who solely depend on raw material imported from china became clueless what to do because his whole business cycle depends on china. When this virus officially discovered in Pakistan so government closed all business activities which causes cash flow to stop and economy was going down with sharp trend. As prime minister was concerned about the poor people so he started to take steps in which slowly economic cycle started to operate although it was a baby step but it provides some sort of support to economy. According to officials’ statements and reports Pakistan economy was among those who had less damage as compared to others in the region. Main working season didn’t go well for the businesses so many businesses went down and they were force to fire their employees and cut down their salaries. Different businesses tried to do work from home but it didn’t put that much impact on economy. During this pandemic many people went down in status level and were considered to take Zakat or different type of loans to survive and support their household.

This pandemic situation caused rise in unemployment, and various sectors faced crisis causing country’s economy to shrink.

Most of the micro businesses faced financial issues, supply chain disruption, decrease in demand, and reduction in sales and profits. Several businesses like airline industry and hotel agency faced the worst phase of their all-time because their customers were went to zero level and they were unable meet their expenses so they were forced to file their bankruptcy and many of them reduced their employees. 

One of Pakistan’s primary export is Textile, and after Covid-19, multiple orders were cancelled and many delayed as international flights were terminated and shipments were also cancelled.

All of this is expected to negatively affect currency value and GDP rate. For instance, in 2018 when Imran Khan came in power, the GDP was 5.8% and now it’s 0.98% which is further likely to decrease. Government is continuously trying to convince citizens to follow sop so that they can run economy in a smooth way.