Nashia Mirza
In the developing world, the availability and cost of power can play a vital role in economic development and people’s well-being. As countries become wealthier and their populations grow, demand -for energy increases. Traditional sources of energy are often too expensive to satisfy this demand. There are also concerns about the limited reserves of fossil fuels and their environmental costs. Solar energy, in particular, is an excellent alternative to fossil fuels, particularly for such developing countries as Pakistan that receive high levels of solar radiation. More and more countries, therefore, are introducing economically and environmentally sound energy policies and are turning to solar energy for a wide range of uses, including cooking and water heating.
Economy of Pakistan
The Gross National Income, Atlas method of the country (Current US $) has reached 90.7 billions in the year 2004. The GNI per capita Atlas method (Current US S) in the country was 600.0 in 2004. The Gross Domestic Product (Current $) in the country was 96.1 billions in the year 2004 with an annual growth rate of 6.4 percent in the same year The average annual growth rate of GDP for the country is estimated at 6.5 percent for the period of 2005-09.
The following graph shows the annual average growth rate of the GDP in the economy. The graph shows that the inflation rate in Pakistan till 2004 has been fluctuating tremendously. In 2004 it has been around 5%, however according to the 2006 and 2007 estimates inflation stands around 7-8% and with this trend we can expect the inflation in Pakistan to stay within 5-8% band for the next 5 years unless there is a major change in the monetary policy of State Bank of Pakistan real growth rate, which is the major indicator of a country’s performance show that the real per capita growth has also fluctuated greatly from 1975-2004. It is currently negative as the GDP growth rate of 6.5% is less than the inflation rate. All of this indicate that the purchasing power of consumers in Pakistan will erode in the future years unless inflation is controlled. The above table gives a projection of the personal disposable income in Pakistan based on the trend from 1994-2004. The PDI will increase from 67.5 120.6 dollars in the next two years and to $215.7 to 2014.
