Islamabad, Nov. 7 -- Amid a worsening economic crisis, the World Bank Group has sounded alarm bells over Pakistan's deepening poverty and widening inequality in its recently released report, "Reclaiming Momentum Towards Prosperity: Pakistan's Poverty, Equity and Resilience Assessment".

The study, Pakistan's first major poverty evaluation in over two decades, paints a grim picture of an economy trapped by weak reforms, low productivity, and an exhausted consumption-led growth model.

According to the World Bank Group, Pakistan's poverty rate, which had fallen dramatically from 64.3 per cent in 2001-02 to 21.9 per cent in 2018-19, has started climbing again since 2020.

The reversal is attributed to overlapping shocks, including the COVID-...