report in The News, Nov 15, 2020
ISLAMABAD: 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.
The survey, conducted from October 28 to November 04 with interviews of over a thousand respondents shows that half of the Pakistanis blame federal government for the inflation, only 15 percent consider previous governments to be responsible. 49 percent respondents said the Centre is responsible, 17 percent respondents considered provincial governments responsible, 8 percent people blamed it on unknown mafia, 5 percent respondents declared shopkeepers responsible and 3 percent each declared bureaucracy and mills owners responsible.
The ratio of those considering the federal government responsible for inflation was the highest (59 percent) in Balochistan, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 58 percent, Punjab 46 percent and Sindh 44 percent.
The survey showed that 97 percent people in Pakistan have been affected from inflation. IPSOS also asked a question from respondents whether they are worried about increasing prices? In reply, 88 percent respondents said they are worried, while 12 percent said they aren’t worried. The highest ratio of those worried by price hike was seen in Sindh with 91 percent, followed by KP with 89 percent, Punjab and Balochistan 86 percent each.
According to the survey, 4 in 5 Pakistanis (83 percent) have faced a cut in their income due to COVID-19.https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/744080-majority-considers-centre-responsible-for-price-hike-survey
