Leading Issues in the Economy of Pakistan: Agenda for Reforms 1.1 Trends in the World Economy The trends in the world economy during the tenures of the three governments are presented in Table 1.1. The conditions in the global economy appear to have been somewhat more favorable from 2013-14 to 2017-18, during the tenure of the PML(N) government. At the time of assumption to power by the PPP government, the oil price had reached the peak level of$140 per barrel, after a period of boom in the world economy. It fell to$46 per barrel in 2016-17. Table 1.1: Trends in the World Economy Growth Rate of World Economy Growth Rate of Volume of World Trade Growth Rate of the International Commodity Price Index 2008-09 to 3.3 3.1 0.7 2012-13 2013-14 to 3.5 3.5-5.5 2017-18 2018-19 to 1.9 2.1 6.3 2020-21 Source: IMF (%) Growth Rate of Crude Oil Price 2.1 -8.4 -2.0 The pandemic, COVID-19, spread globally in early 2020. The year, 2019-20, saw negative growth in the global economy of 3 percent and fall in volume of world trade of over 5 percent. Clearly, this impacted negatively on the domestic economy in the second year of the PTI government. Fortunately, there has been a relatively strong recovery in 2021. 1.2 Negative Factors in the Domestic Economy The big negative impact on Pakistan’s economy has been the upsurge in acts of terrorism in the country after the US invasion of Afghanistan following 9/11 and Pakistan’s support to this operation. The incidence of acts of terrorism and lives lost due to the attacks are given in Table 1.2. Table 1.2: Annual Number of Terrorism Attacks and Number of Persons Killed Number of Average Annual Terrorist Attacks g% Number of Persons killed Average annual g% 2005-06 675 907 2007-08 2577 67.0 7997 a* 2010-11 2985 4.9 7107-3.9 2012-13 1717-27.6 2451-53.2 2015-16 748-27.7 1956-7.5 2017-18 497-20.4 1516-12.7 2018-19 433-12.9 1030-38.6 2020-21 207-36.9 335-56.1 * Very large Source: Institute of Peace Studies, Islamabad. 4