Forecasting the Economic Impact

of Coronavirus on Developing Countries

Case of Pakistan

Dr. Usman W. Chohan

Director, Economics & National Affairs
Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS)

Abstract
The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has already wreaked havoc on the international
economy in numerous ways, differentiating itself in particular through its impact on the “real
world” economy as opposed to financial market-specific damage. Both developed and
developing countries are seeking to grapple with the pandemic, and all face limitations in
their resource capacities; with the shortfall being more acute in the developing world. The
aim of this working paper is to present some limited forecasting through scenario analysis
using an aggregate demand approach for Pakistan, so as to illustrate the possible
multidurational economic impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings suggest that,
FY20 declines will be massive, but faster global and local recovery rates might spur a
resumption of economic activity in FY21.

Working Paper ID: EC016UC

March 28th, 2020
Available on the Social Science
Research Network (SSRN)

CASS Working Papers on

Economics & National Affairs

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

Table of Contents
Schema of Model ........................................................................................................................ 3

Forecast Model of GDP Declines for the Pakistan Economy ................................................... 3

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Aggregate Demand: Expenditure Views......................................................................................... 8

Table 3: Expenditure on GDP at Current Prices with Proportions ........................................ 8

Figure 1: Contribution in Percentage Points to GDP by Expenditure Category ................... 9

Consumption ............................................................................................................................... 9

Table 4: Household Consumption Monthly Breakdown .................................................... 10

Government Expenditure: Stimulus........................................................................................ 11

Table 5: Analysis of Fiscal Spending, MoF 1Q20 ............................................................... 12

Table 6: Government Corona Relief Package Breakdown ................................................ 12

Figure 2: Government Corona Relief Package Breakdown ............................................... 13

Investment & Capital Formation ............................................................................................. 14

Net Exports ............................................................................................................................... 15

Table 7 Contribution of Various Groups in Total Imports .................................................. 16

Table 8: Contribution of Various Groups in Total Exports (esp. Textiles) ......................... 16

Figure 3: Flow of Workers’ Remittances ($USD Billion) .................................................... 17

Scenario Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 18

Figure 4: Fiscal Year and Calendar Year Timelines ........................................................... 18

Table 9: Schema of Model................................................................................................... 20

Table 10: Forecast Model of GDP Declines for the Pakistan Economy............................ 21

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 22

References ............................................................................................................................... 23

About the Author ...................................................................................................................... 26

About CASS .............................................................................................................................. 26

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Schema of Model

Forecast Model of GDP Declines for the Pakistan Economy

FY20 FY21
Forecast
Model GDP Total Total
Declines per FY20 FY21
quarter Q4 (qoq) (yoy) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 (yoy)
3 Month -10% -5% -1% 0 2% 4% 5%
6 Month -10% -5% -3% -1% 0% 2% -2%
12 Month -10% -5% -5% -3% -2% 0 -10%

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Forecasting the Economic Impact of Coronavirus
on Developing Countries: Case of Pakistan

Introduction
A highly contagious viral pandemic1 has spread across the earth, wreaking havoc on the
international economy in its wake, and generating international financial market declines
that are in fact steeper than those witnessed in nearly a century.2 The root of the pandemic
is a virus known as coronavirus or Covid19, for which no vaccine exists and whose spread is
highly contagious in droplets and particles, leading to exponential infection rates among
asymptomatic carriers.3 Although its fatality rate is low at <3%, it disproportionately attacks
the immune-compromised and the aged;4 and while the death rate might be low, its
psychological and economic impacts have been devastating. But how devastating? Some
recent forecasting for the US economy is worth noting in this regard. Deutsche Bank recently
predicted the US economy will shrink 13% in the second quarter; while Oxford Economics
puts the decline at 12% with a loss of 1 million jobs; Capital Economics sees a 10% decline
in GDP, TS Lombard 8.4% and Nationwide 8%. All of this would be comparable to the biggest
contraction in modern American history. 5

Perhaps the only beneficiary of the Covid19 is the earth itself, which is certainly getting some
respite from human activity.6 For the human-economy, however, it spells dire things,
particularly given that the post-2009 boom which the global economy had been riding before
the virus had largely been an unsustainable credit-binged affair,7 reliant on the artifices of
cheap lending and stock buybacks to hyperinflate asset markets.89 Although clear warnings

1 A note on terminology: covid-19, coronavirus, and corona are used interchangeably in this paper
2 Chu, B. (2020) US Stock Market falling faster than during Wall Street Crash. The Independent. March 20.
3 Bai, Y., Yao, L., Wei, T., Tian, F., Jin, D. Y., Chen, L., & Wang, M. (2020). Presumed asymptomatic carrier

transmission of COVID-19. Jama.

4 Casadevall, A., & Pirofski, L. A. (2020). The convalescent sera option for containing COVID-19. The Journal

of clinical investigation, 130(4).

5 Bartash, J. (2020). Echoes of the Great Depression? U.S. economy could post biggest contraction ever,

Capital Report. MarketWatch. March 20.

6 Chow, D. (2020). Coronavirus shutdowns have unintended climate benefits: cleaner air, clearer water,

NBC News. March 19.

7 Hockett, R. (2019). Ten Years On: What Have We Learned? What Have We Done? What Must We Do?.

Challenge, 62(1), 31-48.

8 See Ghosh, C., & Ghosh, A. N. (2019). The Crisis in the US Economy. In Keynesian Macroeconomics

Beyond the IS-LM Model (pp. 233-255). Springer, Singapore.

9 Hossain, A. T., & Kryzanowski, L. (2019). Global financial crisis after ten years: a review of the causes and

regulatory reactions. Managerial Finance.

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to prepare for a pandemic had been articulated in the American system for many years,10
they had sadly gone largely ignored. US healthcare has been declared a “disaster of a
system,”11 but evidently many developing countries (although not all, see Cuba) fare much
worse. For Pakistan, however, healthcare expenditure over the past decade as a percentage
of GDP wallowed between 0.2% and 1% of GDP, far lower than would be required to maintain
a healthy population.12 Given a weak healthcare infrastructure and the possibility of
widespread infection, what sort of economic fallout can be anticipated in a developing
country such as Pakistan?

The aim of this working paper is to provide some forecasting context to that question,
attempting to estimate the 3-month, 6-month and 12-month impact of Covid19 on Pakistan,
therein illustrating the risks of economic stagnation in developing countries. This leads to
questions about public value creation in the ambiguous and fluid context of a widespread
pandemic, one of interest to the public administration literature more broadly.13 At its basis,
the report draws upon documentary sources14 from three different departments: the State
Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) report titled the State of the Economy,15 the Pakistan Bureau of
Statistics (PBS) national accounts documentation, and the Ministry of Planning’s (MoP)
Annual Review for the previous fiscal year (FY2019), all for providing a contextual grounding.
Sadly, the data is not disaggregated by quarters, and so the first half of FY2020 (July 2019 –
June 2020) is not available in discrete quarterly intervals. Furthermore, as the SBP observes,
“SBP data for a number of variables, such as government borrowing, public debt, debt
servicing, foreign trade, etc., often does not match with the information provided by MoF and
PBS.”16

These limitations notwithstanding, three scenarios can be extrapolated for forecasting

purposes from the data itself: a 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month fallout extending from
March 1 (slightly before 4Q20) and into the fiscal year 2021 (July 2020 – June 2021). For
the purposes of this paper, the important contribution should be seen in discussing the
levers of growth/decline and then situating them within the larger national accounts to

10 See Anthony, C., Thomas, T. J., Berg, B. M., Burke, R. V., & Upperman, J. S. (2017). Factors associated
with preparedness of the US healthcare system to respond to a pediatric surge during an infectious
disease pandemic: Is our nation prepared?. American journal of disaster medicine, 12(4), 203-226.
11 Myers, D. (2017). US Healthcare: A" Disaster" of a System. Pitt Political Review, 12(1), 16-19.
12 The lowest figure was 0.23% and 0.27% of GDP in FY10 and FY11, and the highest was the still paltry

0.97% of GDP in FY18.

13 See public value discussions in Chohan 2017a-c; 2018c-d; 2019a-d;
14 See documentary research methodology in Chohan 2019c; comparative case studies in 2019d
15 State Bank of Pakistan [SBP] (2020). State of the Economy. Karachi: SBP.
16 Ibid, p.105.

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estimate fallout across increasing periods. It should be recognized, however, that providing
precise guidance about an ongoing pandemic is a fool’s errand,17 for at least three reasons:

1- the uncertainty of the virus’ duration, along with relapses or a series of likely
mutations,18
2- the exogenous nature of economic revival, i.e. the importance of recovery in China
and the US for Pakistan’s economy,19 and
3- the discovery of an adequate vaccine that can remedy or inoculate a large part of
the world’s population.

None of these factors are within the direct or endogenous control of Pakistan, or any other
developing country for that matter. Covid19 represents a global problem, but requires
addressal through an interconnected web of both global and local actors. An aggregate
demand approach with expenditures is used in this paper,20 which has particular merits for
the question at hand,21 largely because the coronavirus crisis differs in one crucial way: it
has a massive impact on the “real” economy as opposed to just financial assets and
financial markets. The “real economy” should remain in sharp focus through any pandemic
analysis, and the elements of aggregate demand: consumption (C), government expenditure
(G), investment (I), and net exports (X-M) are all impacted in more visceral ways than if this
were some crisis caused by financial markets and the banking sector (as in 2008 or 1987).

Yet Pakistan’s case is somewhat more dire than that of other emerging markets for several
reasons:

1. Pakistan’s economy was already reeling from an economic slowdown before the
Covid19 disease stepped into the limelight. While most Asian countries were
estimating reasonable growth, Pakistan was already mired in a stagflation slowdown
where prices were rising for consumers but economic activity was dwindling
downwards. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Baqir feared that growth could
fall below 3.5% in the current fiscal year (FY20), but this was generous compared to
the IMF forecast of an even lower 2.4%.22

17 See Bernstein, J. (2013). The folly of forecasting. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 471(5),
1415-1418.
18 Covid19 is very likely to mutate; see Qin, C., Liu, F., Yen, T. C., & Lan, X. (2020). 18 F-FDG PET/CT

findings of COVID-19: a series of four highly suspected cases. European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and
Molecular Imaging, 1-6.
19 Both China and the US are among Pakistan’s top 5 trading and investment partners
20 See Aschauer, D. A. (1985). Fiscal policy and aggregate demand. The American Economic Review, 75(1),

117-127.
21 See also Blanchard, O. J., & Quah, D. (1988). The dynamic effects of aggregate demand and supply

disturbances (No. w2737). National Bureau of Economic Research.

22 Ahmed, S.H. (2020). Pakistan’s economy battling a host of challenges. Express Tribune. February 11.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

 2. Pakistan was under attack from well-heeled international mafiosos in the form of the
FATF, the IMF, and other international agencies, operating under the influence of the
United States and India. These institutions, notably the FATF, had been hijacked to
pursue an agenda that was complemented by actual physical (i.e. traditional
security) threats from a reckless Indian government in 2019.23
3. Third, the low tax base, import dependency, and weak socioeconomic structure of
society meant that the government was already forced into running longstanding
fiscal borrowing activities, which severely reduced its fiscal space even before
Covid19 arrived.
4. Fourth, agricultural output in a still agri-dependent economy was being hammered by
a locust invasion on croplands in the center and south of the country,24 driven in part
by climate shifts.
5. Healthcare expenditures in Pakistan were already exceedingly low. Over the past
decade, healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP hovered between 0.2% and
1% of GDP, far lower than would be required to maintain a healthy population. The
lowest figure was 0.23% and 0.27% of GDP in FY10 and FY11, and the highest was
the still a paltry 0.97% of GDP in FY18.

As such, the “pre-existing conditions,” to borrow from the medical jargon, within the Pakistani
political-economy already made the situation one of hardship and squalor before the virus
imposed itself. Given the aforementioned considerations, the approach of the paper is as
follows. On one hand, an emphasis is laid on the economic machinery of Pakistan in terms of
the constitutent drivers of GDP growth, using an aggregate demand (expenditures appraoch)
that is supplemented by the aforementioned documentation from three deparments.25 On
the other hand, a discussion about the moving parts that are most likely to be affected by
coronavirus outbreak of 3-, 6- and 12-months is presented. A final section discusses the
findings of the paper and its limitations, with a view to justifying such as exercise even as
coronavirus unfolds.

23 See bargaining theory approaches to the Pulwama War, where the Pakistan Air Force neutralized Indian
aggression, Chohan 2019f-g
24 Karachi saw its first locust infestation since 1961.
25 MoP, PBS, and SBP, as mentioned earlier

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Aggregate Expenditure View
As a point of departure, it is worth considering the breakdown of national GDP by
expenditure. The primary categories are, as per the conventional formula: C+I+G+X-M. Yet
the categories are not evenly split by importance or magnitude within the Pakistan economy,
with consumption amounting to 82% of net expenditure,26 while government spending and
fixed capital investment accounts for nearly 15% each, and net exports are negative with
imports roughly double the size of exports (a net -10% weighting).

Table 3: Expenditure on GDP at Current Prices with Proportions

Expenditure Categories 2018-2019 Proportions
Rs. Millions
Consumption (C) - Household final consumption expenditure 31670577 82%
Government (G) - General government final expenditure 4871495 13%
Investment (I) - Gross Fixed Capital Formation 5339956 14%
Exports (X) - Exports of goods & non-factor services 3733088 10%
Imports (M) - Imports of goods & non-factor services -7673286 -20%
GDP by Expenditure 38558770 100%
Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics

In terms of contribution to GDP growth, the figure below illustrates how consumption has
been the largest contributor for most of the past 12 years, with net exports generally
decreasing GDP growth and investment only assisting consumption marginally (particularly
after the initiation of CPEC27).

26 The notion of the “net expenditure” underscores the fact that the components of the formula sum to
100 after imports (a negative value) are subtracted.
27 CPEC: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a $60 billion infrastructure-oriented bilateral stimulus

program coordinated between China and Pakistan.

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Figure 1: Contribution in Percentage Points to GDP by Expenditure Category

Source: Ministry of Planning

From this, we may glean several important points regarding each expenditure type, which are
discussed in fuller detail in the next few subsections.

Consumption
The first point is that disruptions to consumption from Covid19 must be minimized, given
that it is both the largest share (>80%) of GDP and is the largest contributor to GDP growth.
Even as people will be affected by lockdowns, at least the essential service elements (the
consumer staples) must be kept running. Drawing upon Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS)
data over the past ten years, we may infer that essential consumption items including food,
beverages, housing, water, and utilities amount to 60% of household consumption,28 while
transport accounts for another 8%. As such, a full 2/3rds of household consumption in
Pakistan is of non-discretionary staples, and so long as the lockdowns do not entirely disrupt
these consumption patterns, a constant tranche of GDP activity will pursue. However, that is
not entirely guaranteed, particularly for transport which will be disrupted; and access to
consumption stores will be kept to a minimum.

Therefore, some degree of non-discretionary consumption will be impacted, while

discretionary items will certainly be curtailed. Chief among these curtailed categories will be
recreation & culture (2%), education (3%), and restaurants (5%), which will certainly fall since
hotels, schools, and restaurants are uniformly closed. Surprisingly, healthcare amounts to a
paltry 3-4% of monthly consumption expenditure, and this is very likely to spike in Covid19
conditions, albeit to an indeterminate degree. The table below disaggregates these monthly

28 This varies by 5 percentage points for rural-urban divide

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consumption categories based on a ten-year average including rural and urban consumption
patterns.

Table 4: Household Consumption Monthly Breakdown

Household Consumption - Monthly 10-Year Average
Breakdown (Rural & Urban Avg, approx)

Food and Beverages 40% Staples

Housing / Water / Utilities 20%
Transport 8%
Health29 4% Discretionary or
Communication 2% Semi-Discretionary
Recreation & Culture 2%
Education 4%
Restaurants & Hotels 6%
Other Discretionary 14%
Total 100% Total
Source: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics

However, whether consumption of staples remains fairly constant hinges in large part on the
unemployment rate, because income levels will be disrupted by the joblessness of lockdown
activity. Unemployment is rising due to the Covid19 pandemic in all countries. Recent data
from the US Labor Department for the third week of March 2020 indicates that US jobless
claims have skyrocketed to 3.3 million,30 which was up from just 0.2 million the week before.
This eclipsed what analysts were forecasting to be 1.7 million, meaning that consensus
estimates of the magnitude were themselves too cautious; given that the US has officially
become the country with the highest number of corona cases. In fact, the jobless claims from
the US are the highest in history (records being kept since 1967).31

This should give an indication of where developing countries are headed but to a worse
degree. According to World Bank Data, 7% of the Pakistani population lives on less than
$1.90 a day, but 33% lives on less than $3.20 a day, and a full 75% lives on less than $5.50
a day.32 The pattern is magnified around the world, since one in every two people on earth
lives on less than $5.50 per day.33 This data helps us to infer the size of the daily wager

29 Health is treated as an essential staple in developed countries, but in the developing world is often a
discretionary item for many households that must save to afford medicinal, pharmaceutical, or hospital
access.
30 Badkar, M., Greenley, B. and Smith, C. (2020). US jobless claims surge to record 3.3m as America locks

down. Financial Times. March 26.

31 Ibid.
32 Joliffe, DM, and Wadhwa, D. (2018). Nearly 1 in 2 in the world lives under $5.50 a day. World Bank

Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/nearly-1-2-world-lives-under-550-day.
33 Ibid.

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class in Pakistan, which might account for at least 70 million people in Pakistan.34
International reporting based in Pakistan has highlighted that, in the first two weeks of the
corona lockdown in Pakistan, many daily wage laborers have been going home virtually
hungry, with but a slice of bread or biscuit, since there are not getting any menial jobs to
earn from .3536 This problem is being magnified in other neighboring poor countries, such as
India, where the sheer mass of destitution is far greater and the inequalities more stark; due
to which daily wagers are being rendered destitute by the hour.37To combat this joblessness
crisis, the Pakistani government is initiating a stimulus program that will include
disbursements of 12,000 rupees ($75) to low-income earners, affecting an estimating 67
million people,38 which will fall under the next section of government expenditure (G).

Government Expenditure: Stimulus

As mentioned above, the Government of Pakistan has not stood still in this crisis, and
despite all of the fiscal constraints mentioned at the beginning of this paper, initiated a
Rs.1.2 trillion stimulus program (or “relief package”) that will be targeted towards the
working poor. Government spending shall therefore rise in the next few quarters as
disbursements and transfer payments are made that seek to alleviate the increasing
pressures in society’s lowest echelon. This counter-cyclical spending will be the only positive
driver of GDP growth in the upcoming quarters;39 but it will in turn raise two questions: (1) is
the size adequate to spur activity and provide relief? and (2) how might it impact the fiscal
burden that Pakistan carries? Data from the Ministry of Finance shows that a substantial
chunk of the current expenditures of the government are in interest payments on domestic
and foreign borrowing,40 amounting to 36% of current expenditures in 1Q20 and 33% of total
expenditures in that period, while rowing year on year by 12%, well ahead of GDP growth.
Development expenditures, such as the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), whose
resources are being channeled towards fighting Covid, amount to just 9% of total

34 Another estimate is of 67 million, but this appears conservative. See Hashim, A. (2020). Pakistan daily
wagers struggle to survive in coronavirus lockdown. March 25.
35 Hashim, A. (2020). Pakistan daily wagers struggle to survive in coronavirus lockdown. March 25.
36 There is a very strong case, although it lies outside the scope of the conventional model (except for

partial reflection in C and I), for philanthropic activity to take place on a massive scale. In previous crises
such as the 2005 earthquake, there was a large-scale philanthropically-driven movement to alleviate the
hardships of the public. That civil-society public value creation effort must be replicated today to bring relief
to the afflicted masses.
37 Dore, B. (2020). India's lockdown is proving disastrous for millions of daily wagers. TRT World. March 26.
38 Hashim, A. (2020). Pakistan daily wagers struggle to survive in coronavirus lockdown. March 25.
39 Aside from import reductions due to price compression (oil)
40 See longer historical analysis of debt sustainability in Chohan, U.W. (2019h). Fiscal Sustainability: A

Historical Analysis of Pakistan’s Debt Conundrum. Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS). CASS
Working Papers on Economic and National Affairs. EC005UC.

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expenditures and only appear to be growing fast due to a steep year-on-year drop in 1Q19
while being lower in absolute terms than in 1Q18 (Rs. 142 billion in 1Q20 vs. 165 billion in
1Q18). New borrowing under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility in 2019, and its concomitant
austerity stranglehold, already narrowed the fiscal space in which the country could
maneuver.

Table 5: Analysis of Fiscal Spending, MoF 1Q20

Therefore, the government’s initiative on a relief package should be lauded but nevertheless
seen within the context of massive interest payments that abound. For the purposes of
simplicity within this paper, the revenue collection problem is left out in an aggregate
demand expenditure approach to the problem. However, Covid19 will indeed have a negative
effect on the revenue collection of government in both direct and indirect (VAT, sales tax)
methods. As for the question of mitigating the loss from joblessness (whether G
compensates for C in the aggregate demand model). It is worth disaggregating the elements
of the government’s announced Rs. 1.2 trillion ($7.2Bn) relief package in the table below.

Table 6: Government Corona Relief Package Breakdown

Corona Relief Package Tentative Rs. % of Category
Breakdown Billions package
Daily wage transfer payments 200 17% C
Tax refunds to businessmen, exporters and 100 8% I+X
industry
SMEs, agriculture, deferred interest 100 8% I
payments, concessional loan facility
Poor family transfer payments (Rs. 3000) 150 13% C
Utility stores initial tranche 150 13% C
Utility store later tranche 50 4% C
Wheat procurement 280 23% C
Lowering petrol 70 6% C

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 Medical Workers 50 4% G
NDMA 50 4% G
Total 1200 100% All
Reserve Fund 100
Source: Author’s research, GoP (2020)

Figure 2: Government Corona Relief Package Breakdown

Corona Relief Package

Tentative Package Daily wage tranfer payments

Tax refunds to businessmen, exporters and

industry
4%4% 17% SMEs, agriculture, deferred interest
6% payments, concessional loan facility
Poor family transfer payments (Rs. 3000)
8%
Utility stores initial tranche
23%
8% Utility store later tranche

4% 13% Wheat procurement

13%
Lowering petrol

Source: Author’s research, GoP (2020)

The tentative nature of the proposed corona relief package offers some important
prognostications for its effect amidst the crisis of Covid19. First, it is roughly twice the size of
the annualized expenditure on Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), but half the size
of the annualized interest expenses on domestic and foreign debt (pre-IMF EFF). It therefore
reflects a reasonable attempt to navigate a difficult and constrained fiscal space; and should
be coupled with pressure put on lending institutions such as the IMF and groups such as the
Paris Club to issue debt forgiveness pledges. Second, it is largely diverted towards assuring
that the national consumption function isn’t gravely disrupted, with about 75% allocation
towards consumption-related issues including transfer payments, supply chain assurances,
subsidies, and guarantees. This is a positive measure because it (1) reflects the importance
of consumption to GDP, and (2) is targeted towards the lower strata. Third, for investment
expenditure & capital formation, it allocates roughly 15% of the relief package to tax refunds,
deferred interest payments, and concessional loans, both to Small & Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) and Large-Scale Manufacturers (LSMs) alike. This reflects the relative weight of
investment within the national expenditure function, and is discussed briefly below.

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Investment & Capital Formation
Investment & Capital Formation was already on the decline before Covid19 hit,41 and could
be described as the victim of multifarious challenges, including “energy crises, fluctuating
[raw material] prices, shortage of gas supply and load shading, law and order situation,
devaluation of Pakistani currency, lack of research and development (R&D) institutions, lack
of modern equipment and machinery and production costs.”42 For reference purposes, out
of the 14% of GDP that investment expenditures represents, 10% is private and 4% is public
investment, and these proportions have been steady for the past five years.43

Key to the Investment category is the industrial sector, which plays a significant role in the
economic development of any country. Industry employs 24 percent of total labour force, but
the industrial sector growth has remained muted in the past few years. In FY19 and it grew
by 1.4% compared with 4.9% in 2017-18. The Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) dominates
the overall industrial sector, accounting for 50 percent of the sectoral share. With respect to
financing in particular, which the relief package seeks to address to some degree, it is worth
noting that even pre-March 2020, “since the private sector was not getting enough bank
financing, it is producing less; and this low production is dragging down the GDP growth,”44

A mainstay of Pakistan’s investment & capital formation drive over the past 5 years was the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a $60 billion infrastructure-oriented
bilateral stimulus program jointly coordinated by China and Pakistan as part of the larger One
Belt One Road Infrastructure.45 Phase 1 of CPEC was more capital-intensive and raised
production activities in several sectors including construction, but Phase 2 (currently
underway) is one of consolidating infrastructure and bringing in enterprise. In addition to the
structural issues above, there has been a glaring lack of a “value seeking imagination”46 on
the part of local entrepreneurs.

The concentration of LSMs in the textile industry has also led to sector-specific risks, since
textile has accounted for 8-10% of GDP in the investment category over the past twenty
years (not to mention its share in exports X),47 and is more than one-third of the LSM

41 State Bank of Pakistan [SBP] (2020). State of the Economy. Karachi: SBP.
42 W. Shah, Warraich,U. and Kabeer, K. (2012). Challenges Faced by Textile Industry of Pakistan:
Suggested Solutions. KASBIT Business Journal, 5:33-39
43 Ministry of Planning Data.
44 Ahmed, S.H. (2020). Pakistan’s economy battling a host of challenges. Express Tribune. February 11.
45 See One Belt One Road in Chohan 2018a-b
46 See “value seeking imagination” in Chohan 2019a.
47 Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2019). (2019). Sector Shares in GDP (Constant Prices). PBS: Islamabad.

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category in terms of volume.48 Textiles were also the largest private sector capital
expenditure (capex) investors in the current fiscal year (with Rs.8.1 billion investment), driven
by concessional loan arrangements such as the Long-Term Financing Facility (LTTF).49 But
the government was in fact making things tougher for the textile industry lately, since the
collection from sales tax on textile products increased to Rs 2.1 billion as compared to Rs
0.6 billion in the previous year, following the elimination of zero-rating regime for the
sector.50 So would the government’s relief package, which is only tangentially focused on
industrial strength, serve the purpose of rescuing industries such as textiles? Unlikely so,
particularly given the export orientation of this industry and the global impact on net exports
expenditure category (X-M), which is discussed next.

Net Exports
Pakistan’s imports are slightly diverse but its exports are limited, and the net difference is a
ratio of -2:1 with larger imports. We may cover imports first in this regard, particularly oil,
since in recent years, the “petroleum group”51 of imports has accounted for 25% of
Pakistan’s import bill.52 In FY19, this amounted to $11.8bn out of $44bn, meaning that any
reduction in the prices of petroleum imports would be a welcome relief. At present, a Saudi-
Russian oil price-war and rivalry has begun to commodity’s the commodity’s international
price.53 Predictions are that this would reduce the internationally denominated price of oil to
$20 a barrel.54 This would augur well for the Pakistani economy, and this is factored into the
model as a price-adjusted reduction in the import bill. Aside from the petroleum group,
machinery imports also constitute an important import category. Cyclical industries such as
those dependent on machinery imports, metal (iron & steel) imports, and textile-related
imports are likely to fall due to a decline in industrial demand as a function of falling demand
for (1) export-related industry (textile), and (2) phase-2 of CPEC (lower machinery
requirements).

48 State Bank of Pakistan (2020). State of the Pakistani Economy. SBP: Karachi.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid.
51 (including crude oil, gas, and petroleum products; but excluding edible oils such as palm oil)
52 MoP figures.
53 On 8 March 2020, Saudi Arabia initiated a price war with Russia, triggering a major fall in the price of oil,

with US oil prices falling by 34%, crude oil falling by 26%, and brent oil falling by 24%. The price war was
triggered by a breakup in dialogue between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
and Russia over proposed oil production cuts in the midst of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. See
Egan, M. (2020). "Oil crashes by most since 1991 as Saudi Arabia launches price war". CNN. March 10.
54 Stevens, P. (2020). Goldman slashes oil forecast, sees US crude at $20 per barrel. CNBC. March 17.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

Table 7 Contribution of Various Groups in Total Imports
$USD millions
Contribution of Various Groups in 1Q18 1Q19 % of total
Import 1Q19
Food Group 4542 3994 9%
Machinery Group 7283 5579 13%
Petroleum Group 11023 11859 27%
Textile Group 3330 3267 7%
Metal Group 3904 3306 8%
All Other Items 16220 16028 36%
Total Imports 46302 44033 100%
Source: Ministry of Planning

On the exports side, the textile group represents nearly 55% of all exports), as the table
below indicates. Cotton Yarn itself accounts for nearly 5% of all exports, while cotton cloth
accounts for 9%, knitwear 11%, bedwear 9%, and readymade garments a full 10%. But to
foresee how textile exports will fare in Covid19’s aftermath, recent data out of Bangladesh
might be indicative.55 European and U.S. buyers including Primark, the budget fashion-chain
owned by Associated British Foods Plc, have collectively canceled about $1.5 billion of
Bangladesh garment orders as Covid19 roils demand. As many as 1,089 Bangladesh
garment factories have seen orders getting scrapped, according to the president of the
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.56

Table 8: Contribution of Various Groups in Total Exports (esp. Textiles)

$USD millions
Contribution of Various Groups in 1Q18 1Q19 % of total
Exports 1Q19
Food Group 3899 3708 18%
Textile Group 11107 11353 54%
Cotton Yarn 1021 1002 5%
Cotton Cloth 1801 1838 9%
Knitwear 2162 2394 11%
Bedwear 1953 1975 9%
Readymade Garments 2074 2118 10%
Other Manufactures 3462 3158 15%
All Other Items 2021 2780 13%
Total Exports 20489 20999 100%
Source: Ministry of Planning

55 Devnath, Arun. (2020). European Retailers Scrap $1.5 Billion of Bangladesh Orders. Bloomberg News.
March 23.
56 Ibid.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

These cancellations are directly impacting lives of 1.2 million workers. Bangladesh is a larger
garment exporter than Pakistan, coming in second place after China, and readymade
clothing factories employ more than 4 million people while the industry accounts for 13% of
their GDP. Pakistan’s proportion is smaller but still large.

An important mention should also be made to Pakistan’s “export of labor,” i.e. the
remittances earned from abroad. Remittances have provided an important lifeline to
Pakistan in previous years, sending roughly $1 billion dollars per month for the past two
decades, peaking in FY18 when remittances hit nearly $20 billion. In terms of geographical
distribution, Saudi Arabia has remained the largest contributor country with 23.4 percent
share followed by UAE (21.2%), USA (15.6%), UK (15.4%) and other GCC countries (9.6%).57
Previous international financial crises have put pressure on overseas Pakistanis, and
Covid19 will be no different. This is particularly true since many diaspora households occupy
blue-collar positions in the GCC countries, which depend on income from cyclical industries,
particularly in construction, maintenance, lower-tier services, and hospitality. When these
industries are locked away, then the labor class will feel the pinch of unemployment or wage
compression, and that too without the guarantee of employment insurance given their non-
permanent or semi-permanent resident status. As with the precariate daily wager class
domestically, the Overseas Pakistani precariate class will face turbulence in a protracted
Covid19 slowdown.

Figure 3: Flow of Workers’ Remittances ($USD Billion)

Source: SBP

In the same way that the consumption function (C) will be determined by unemployment, the
net exports function (X-M) will also depend on the currency (PKR) in relation to the basket of
international currencies. During crisis periods, there is a global investor tendency to take a

57 Figures are specifically for Jul-Apr 2018-19 period (1Q19), Ministry of Planning documents

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

flight to the safety of the US dollar,58 given its status as world reserve currency.59 There is
some inclination for this to change given the whopping $4 trillion stimulus in liquidity that the
US intends to deploy for Covid19.60 In fact, greater doubts should linger around the US
dollar’s value after such a massive amount of (perhaps largely “misdirected”61) pump-
priming stimulus is infused into the economy. Initially, however, investor instincts on flight-to-
safety are likely to prevail, thereby weakening other currencies, particularly emerging market
currencies (such as PKR). This is already being made evident, as the USD is hitting historic
highs, as of this writing, against the PKR of 169 to a dollar.62 While a boost to exporters in
peacetime conditions, the slashing of orders due to overseas demand declines will not
translate into export growth as desired. At the same time, although key import commodities,
particularly the petroleum group, are likely to fall, the currency effect will slightly offset the
overall import bill in currency translation terms.

Scenario Analysis
From the aforementioned factors of aggregate demand (expenditure side) and some analysis
of specific sectors, we may devise a limited analysis of scenarios based on their impact on
the Pakistan economy over a 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month horizon. This should help to
illustrate the plight of many developing economies as their aggregate demand functions are
struck by the coronavirus’ recessionary impact. It may help to first delineate the timelines
that come into focus at this juncture. A 3-month impact assumes that the world’s economic
machinery recovers quickly as the major economies undertake a “fantastic” rebound,63
which is an absolute and exceedingly optimistic best-case scenario. The 3-month impact
would represent the period until June 2020, and thus correspond to the end of the current
fiscal year (FY2020).

Figure 4: Fiscal Year and Calendar Year Timelines

58 Stavrakeva, V., & Tang, J. (2019). The Dollar During the Great Recession: US Monetary Policy Signaling
and The Flight To Safety (No. 14034). CEPR Discussion Papers.
59 Baele, L., Bekaert, G., Inghelbrecht, K., & Wei, M. (2020). Flights to safety. The Review of Financial

Studies, 33(2), 689-746.

60 Chohan, U.W. (2020). The Coronavirus Impacts on the World Economy. Indus News. Interview. March 22.
61 Misdirected in the sense that the Republican version of the stimulus plan disproportionately large

corporations that had been engaging in stock buybacks with cheap lending rather than amassing a war
chest of cash for a rainy day.
62 Ahmed, A. (2020). US Dollar hits new highs against Pak Rupee. Business Recorder. March 27.
63 “fantastic” in the etymological sense of “fantasy”

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

A 6-month coronavirus fallout would, from the current epidemiological perspective,64 still be
somewhat optimistic in terms of the anticipation of a vaccine, remedial actions to mitigate
international uncertainty, and undoing the damage from lockdowns and stalled economic
activity. Yet it would be a more sober horizon to anticipate miraculous rebounds, and would
pass onto the next fiscal year (FY21) in calculation. A 12-month coronavirus would be
sobering but more encompassing of the devastation that the second-order effects of the
crisis would entail. Calculating beyond this horizon would be foolhardier than any fool’s
errand. 65

Some difficult assumptions must be made in the modelling exercise, and it should be
remembered that any model’s usefulness is predicated on its assumptions.66 First, whether
relief on debt servicing is accepted or not is an open question, given the “vampiric pathology”
of the IMF and other creditors, “akin to coronavirus itself.”67 It is assumed, however naively,
that some relief is offered by international creditors (impacting government spending, G).
Second, it is assumed that the physical lockdowns are imposed leniently, in the first three
weeks of April, to be repeated once in June in a likely aftershock (impacting all three
scenarios along consumption function C).68 More lockdowns than this is difficult to imagine,
given that there is already strong resistance to the current imposition, with people flocking
willy-nilly to public spaces including parks and mosques despite being strongly advised
against doing so.69

Third, it is assumed that the stimulus measures around the world, but particularly in the US,
UK, and China, will start to have an impact on financial markets after 6-months once
investors feel that much of the damage has been absorbed and reflected in asset class
values (particularly equities). This will impact investment (I), consumption (c), and net exports
(x-m). Fourth, it is assumed that the government’s corona stimulus will provide some cushion
to consumption, but will not be able to offset entirely the effects of unemployment and

64 See example in Bai, Y., Yao, L., Wei, T., Tian, F., Jin, D. Y., Chen, L., & Wang, M. (2020). Presumed
asymptomatic carrier transmission of COVID-19. Jama.
65 See Bernstein, J. (2013). The folly of forecasting. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 471(5),

1415-1418.
66 Kuorikoski, J., Lehtinen, A., & Marchionni, C. (2010). Economic modelling as robustness analysis. The

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 61(3), 541-567.

67 Chohan, U.W. (2020). Corona-capitalism. The Nation. March 23.
68 This would be akin to China sealing its airports to foreigners well after no new cases are reported.

Ruwitch, J. and Kennedy, M. (2020). China Temporarily Closes Its Borders To Foreign Nationals. NPR.
March 26.
69 Abi-Habib, M., ur-Rehman, Z. and Mehsud, I.T., (2020). ‘God Will Protect Us’: Coronavirus Spreads

Through an Already Struggling Pakistan. New York Times. March 26.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

essential consumption. From this, we may arrive at a schema of the economic model in
question, as presented below.70

Table 9: Schema of Model

Plugging in for the subtotals of C+I+G+X-M in the model above allows for a disaggregated
treatment of the various levers that were discussed in the body of this paper. From this, we
can impute quarterly GDP growth estimates, reflecting the various movements of expenditure
components. 71 This leads to a forecast model over the horizon (FY20-FY21) displayed
earlier, and demonstrates that the scope of the GDP declines will be a function of the
estimated period of economic drawdown, in our model whether at 3-months, 6-months, or
12-months, with the latter two impacting FY21 severely as well. The data is expressed in
terms of quarterly changes (qoq) and yearly changes (yoy).

70This is also presented at the beginning of the paper.

71By convention, and for brevity, the calculations are omitted from this paper. However, they are available
with permission from CASS, by contacting cass.thinkers@gmail.com

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

Table 10: Forecast Model of GDP Declines for the Pakistan Economy
FY20 FY21

Forecast Model Total

GDP Declines per Total FY20 FY21
quarter Q4 (qoq) (yoy) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 (yoy)
3 Month -10% -5% -1% 0 2% 4% 5%
6 Month -10% -5% -3% -1% 0% 2% -2%
12 Month -10% -5% -5% -3% -2% 0 -10%
Source: Author’s Research

Forecast Model of GDP Declines per Quarter

5%

0%
Base Q4 (qoq) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
-5%

-10%

-15%

3 Month 6 Month 12 Month

The constant factor across each of the scenarios is that the present 3-month period (Q420)
will be uniformly devastating, due to lockdowns, unemployment, cancellation of orders,
deferment of investment plans, and other abovementioned factors. This will be offset to
some extent by the government stimulus program and the fall in certain input prices. This
model assumes, however, that the stimulus will not be adequate to compensate entirely for
the disruptions given its limited scope.72 All scenarios follow a largely symmetrical
progression, with the assumption that declines will be borne out initially, but the greater the
prolonged prevention measures and devastation of Corona, the slower the quarter-on-
quarter (qoq) recovery. A 12-month recessionary period, while entirely plausible, would be
very difficult for any economy, developed or developing, to stomach. A 6-month recessionary
phase would be grinding but palatable. A 3-month phase, which would in fact lead to positive
yoy figures in FY21, would be ideal but far-fetched given factors discussed earlier in this
paper such as time to vaccine deployment and resumption of global supply chains.

72 For comparison, the Pakistani stimulus is $7.2 billion (Rs. 1.2 trillion), while the US liquidity splurge is up
to $4,000 billion in total (using several mechanisms including Treasury, the Fed, and Congress.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

Conclusion
There is an appointed time for each of us to depart. Covid19 may be the agent of our death,
or it might not, but the disruptions that it is leaving in its wake have shaken the world’s
political, economic, and social foundations with a burst of tremors. The brunt of that impact
is likelier to be felt over time in developing countries, where health systems, fiscal resources,
and governance issues hamper remedial actions. The aim of this working paper was to
provide some limited forecasting work on the economic impact of Covid19 across varying
time-horizon scenarios, to illustrate the economic dangers posed by coronavirus to
developing countries. Pakistan is particularly indicative of the anticipated hardships since its
economy was already in the doldrums before Covid19 was even contracted by a human.
Despite that, the Pakistani government has mobilized an action plan and arranged a
stimulus program what, despite its modest size, may help to alleviate at least some of the
pressure faced by the economy. However, it does not have the fiscal space to launch
Universal Basic Income (UBI) programs or a Green New Deal (GDN),73 and its response to the
problem will remain hampered by resource constraints.

This paper sought to break down the impacts across the components of aggregate demand
(C+I+G+X-M) to illustrate with logical argumentation just what sorts of headwinds would be
faced and where in the national accounts. This exercise, while providing a strong forecasting
indication, is fraught with limitations that may prove its suggestions erroneous in the
medium-run. Above all, there is still (as of this writing) very little clarity on where Covid19 is
heading, what sorts of vaccine treatments might be available, and what the global recovery
trajectory might be. It is in essence “all up in the air.” The assumptions made by this paper
can be thoroughly disputed, and reality may bear out differently. Nevertheless, applying
some economic techniques and logical argumentation may still prove instructive in the study
of a new pandemic’s destructive economic potential and how value creation for the public
might still be conceived in such circumstances. Further research is required on many fronts,
above all on the epidemiological side, but even for the case of economists, many questions
have yet to be raised about the context and capacity with which developing countries might
confront the scourges that befall them, such as Ebola and Corona, and the scourges that
might yet befall them.

73 See UBI and GND in Chohan 2019c and 2019d respectively

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3563616

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About the Author
Dr. Usman W. Chohan (@EconomistChohan) is the Director of Economics and National Affairs
at the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS). Dr. Chohan has a PhD and Post-Doc
from UNSW Canberra and an MBA from McGill University. He has previously worked at the
World Bank Institute and the National Bank of Canada, while also being a Global Shaper of
the World Economic Forum. Dr. Chohan is ranked among the top 20 business authors on the
Social Science Research Network (SSRN, L12M) and was included among Australia’s 50 Top
Thinkers by The Conversation Australia (2016). He is also the President of the International
Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA) with fluency in various Indo-European languages
including English, French, Spanish, Urdu, Portuguese, Punjabi etc. His areas of research
specialization include Public Value Theory, One Belt One Road, Cryptocurrencies, Budget
Reform & Legislative Oversight, and Aerospace & Defense Economics.

About CASS
The Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS) is an independent research institute
whose mission is to provide comprehensive insight and multifaceted analysis on
international issues of immediate as well as long-term consequence, particularly in the
domains of aerospace, security, and economics. CASS seeks to inform the discourse of
global thinkers, policy-makers, academics and practitioners through a diverse range of
detailed research outputs, such as the CASS Working Papers on Economics and National
Affairs, which is to be made available to the public domain via the Social Science Research
Network (SSRN).

CASS Working Papers on

Economics & National Affairs

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