Pakistan economy snapshot: growth, reserves and debt

Population and output

Pakistan has 255.2 million residents. Total output was $407 billion in 2025, which works out to $1,596 per person. The official rate was 281.1 local currency units per US dollar in 2025.

Prices and jobs

Inflation measured by consumer prices was 3.5% in 2025, while real growth reached 3.7%.

Modelled ILO unemployment is 5.4% for 2025.

Reserves, the current account and capital inflows

Reserves including gold total $26.5 billion. That is 3.8 months of import cover for 2025. The current account balance is -0.1% of GDP, and net foreign direct investment inflows are 0.5% of GDP.

The debt reading

Debt is the one series here that comes from the IMF rather than the World Bank, and it is measured against GDP, so it moves with both the stock of debt and the size of the economy.

The IMF World Economic Outlook database records general government gross debt of 72.8% of GDP for 2025. This article does not cover debt service costs.

The macro figures together

Taken together, the readings describe an economy that grew 3.7% while prices rose 3.5%. External cover is 3.8 months of imports, the current account sits at -0.1% of GDP and net FDI inflows are 0.5% of GDP. Public debt stands at 72.8% of GDP in the IMF series. The World Bank figures carry an as-of date of 8 October 2026 in our dataset, and the IMF debt reading was retrieved later, so the sources list shows each date separately.

Sector exposure scores

Each score ranks a sector against other countries. Sector names are examples, not recommendations.

Agriculture and food lead at 73 out of 100. Rationale: Agriculture is 23.0% of GDP; 39.8% of land is arable (2024, 2025). Inputs: Agriculture value added (weight 40%); Food exports (weight 20%); Agricultural raw materials exports (weight 15%); Arable land (weight 15%); Cereal yield (weight 10%, inverted).

Infrastructure and logistics follow at 68 out of 100. Rationale: The Logistics Performance Index is 2.4 out of 5; container port traffic is 3.3 million TEU (2018, 2024). Inputs: Container port traffic (weight 25%); Logistics Performance Index (1 to 5) (weight 25%, inverted); Access to electricity (weight 20%, inverted); Transport services exports (weight 15%); Urban population growth (weight 15%).

Telecommunications score 66 out of 100. Rationale: Population is 255.2 million; 57.3% of people use the internet (2024, 2025). Inputs: Individuals using the Internet (weight 35%, inverted); Population (weight 35%); Mobile subscriptions per 100 people (weight 30%).

Oil and gas close the list at 65 out of 100. Rationale: Oil rents are 0.4% of GDP; natural gas rents are 0.7% of GDP (2021). Inputs: Oil rents (weight 35%); Fuel exports (weight 35%); Natural gas rents (weight 20%); Coal rents (weight 10%).

Reading the scores correctly

The scores range from 65 out of 100 to 73 out of 100.

A high score means the sector is large and relevant relative to other countries, using the inputs listed above for each sector. The model states that it is not a measure of attractiveness, return or risk.

The model builds each score this way: "Each score is a weighted average of percentile ranks. For every indicator, a country's latest observation (not older than 2014) is ranked against all other countries with data (mid-rank percentile, 0 to 1). Where a lower raw value signals more headroom (for example electricity access), the rank is inverted. The weighted average of the available percentiles is scaled to 0 to 100. A cell is published only if indicators holding at least 60 percent of the weight are available; otherwise the country is omitted for that sector."

On interpretation it says: "The score describes how large and relevant a sector is in a country's economy and opportunity set, relative to other countries. It is not a measure of attractiveness, return or risk, and it is not investment advice."

What a reader can do with this

Use the snapshot as a starting reference for Pakistan. Check the as-of date beside each figure, open the country profile for the longer indicator list, and compare the sector scores with the inputs that drive them. Agriculture and infrastructure draw on structural inputs such as land and logistics, while telecommunications leans on population and internet use. This note is educational and gives no personal advice.

Sources and next steps

The Pakistan country profile carries every indicator. Related pages: the agriculture sector page, the infrastructure sector page and the telecom sector page. Retrieval dates are in the sources list and on the data status page.