The main macroeconomic indicators:

• GDP: $ $274.048 billion
• GDP growth: 3.29%
• inflation: 8.8%
• unemployment rate: 5.7%
• average per capita income: $ 1497
• budget deficit: 2.7% of GDP

Primary export commodities: textiles, fruits and vegetables, rice, leather goods, sports goods, carpets.

Primary import commodities: petroleum, mineral fuels, machinery and equipment, iron, steel, organic chemicals, food products, metals, vehicles.

National currency: Pakistani rupee.
Approximate course: 1$ = 140 PKR

The economy of Pakistan is the 24th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), and 39th largest in terms of nominal gross domestic product. Pakistan has a population of over 207 million (the world's 6th-largest), giving it a nominal GDP per capita of $1,357 in 2019, which ranks 154th in the world and giving it a PPP GDP per capita of 5,839 in 2019, which ranks 132th in the world for 2019. However, Pakistan's undocumented economy is estimated to be 36% of its overall economy, which is not taken into consideration when calculating per capita income.

Pakistan is considered a developing country and is one of the Next Eleven, a group of eleven countries that, along with the BRICs, have a high potential to become the world's largest economies in the 21st century.

The economy is semi-industrialized, with centres of growth along the Indus River. The diversified economies of Karachi and Punjab's urban centres coexist with less-developed areas in other parts of the country, particularly in Balochistan.

Agriculture accounted for about 53% of GDP in 1947. While per-capita agricultural output has grown since then, it has been outpaced by the growth of the non-agricultural sectors, and the share of agriculture has dropped to roughly one-fifth of Pakistan's economy. In recent years, the country has seen rapid growth in industries (such as apparel, textiles, and cement) and services (such as telecommunications, transportation, advertising, and finance).

Despite being a very poor country in 1947, Pakistan's economic growth rate has been better than the global average during the subsequent four decades, but imprudent policies led to a slowdown in the late 1990s. Recently, wide-ranging economic reforms have resulted in a stronger economic outlook and accelerated growth especially in the manufacturing and financial services sectors. Since the 1990s, there has been great improvement in the foreign exchange position and rapid growth in hard currency reserves.

Pakistan is currently undergoing a process of economic liberalization, including privatization of all government corporations, aimed to attract foreign investment and decrease budget deficit.

The World Bank (WB) and International Finance Corporation's flagship report Ease of Doing Business Index 2019 ranked Pakistan 136 among 190 countries around the globe, indicating a continuous improvement and taking a jump from 147 last year.

With improvement in ease of doing business ranking and giving an investment friendly road map from government, many new auto sector giants like France's Renault, South Korean's Hyundai and Kia, Chinese JW Forland and German auto giant Volkswagen have stepped in Pakistan auto market through joint ventures with local manufacturers like Dewan Farooque Motors, Khalid Mushtaq Motors and United Motors.

US oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil has again returned to Pakistan after nearly three decades gap and has acquired 25% shares in offshore drilling in May 2018, with initial survey showing a potential of huge hydrocarbon reserves discovery at offshore.

With recent agreement from Saudi Arabia to invest more than US dollar 15 billion in establishing a mega oil refinery and petrochemical industry in Gwadar more commitments for investments are on its way to come in this sector especially from UAE, Qatar, Malaysia and Italy.

In 2019 Pakistan is seeking its thirteenth bailout since the late 1980s as Pakistan's central bank has only $7 billion left in foreign reserves. Inflation is high since 2018. Total debt and external debt as percent of GDP are rising. The government negotiated a three-year $6.6 billion package which would allow it to deal with on-going debt issues. In May 2019, Pakistan finalised a US $6 billion foreign aid with IMF.

To boost Pakistan's unstable foreign-exchange reserves, Qatar announced to invest $3 billion the form of deposits and direct investments in the country.

According to the Economic complexity index, Pakistan is the 67th-largest export economy in the world and the 106th most complex economy. Primary export commodities include textiles, leather goods, sports goods, chemicals, carpets/rugs and medical instruments.

The largest foreign trade partners of Pakistan for many years remain the UAE, China, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Malaysia, Japan, Iran, India, Singapore, as well as Afghanistan and the EU countries. China is becoming one of the main foreign trade partners of Pakistan.

The basic unit of currency is the Rupee, ISO code PKR and abbreviated Rs, which is divided into 100 paisas. Currently the newly printed 5,000 rupee note is the largest denomination in circulation.

More Pakistan's economic news can be found in the NEWS section.