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A 2024 joint study of the International Labor Organization and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) estimated Pakistan's undocumented economy at $457 billion. While other South Asian nations, particularly Bangladesh and India, do include estimated undocumented GDP figures in their official GDP, Pakistan's official GDP figures do not include such estimates. If the Pakistani government decides to include estimates of the informal economy in its official figures, the country's GDP would jump to $1,059 billion in market exchange terms and over $4,000 billion in PPP terms.
In 2023 when the ILO-SMEDA study was conducted, Pakistan's official GDP was $340 billion (34% less than the undocumented GDP), bringing the total real GDP for 2023 to $797 billion. Pakistan's official GDP figure for 2025-26 is projected to be $452 billion. Assuming that the undocumented GDP has grown at the same rate as the official GDP, the undocumented GDP today works out to $607 billion, bringing the total GDP (documented and undocumented) to over $1 trillion. In terms of purchasing power parity, the total national economy, including the informal economy, is estimated to be over $4 trillion, which translates to over $16,000 per capita.
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@najam-ali
In PPP terms, India’s GDP might be 1.5 times larger than Pakistan’s, but the real story is different.
Once you account for Pakistan’s massive undocumented economy, our GDP per capita in PPP terms actually edges out India’s.
Why? Because we have around 3 million small businesses thriving outside the formal system.
This is also why our government struggles with tax revenues, not because the economy is weak, but because the informal sector is so dominant.
And frankly, that is not entirely a bad thing. As I said in an interview yesterday: every extra dollar in the hands of a private business owner creates more value than when handed to a government that specializes in inefficiency and waste.
https://x.com/najam_ali/status/1916396161251897800?s=61&t=mgTxr...
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