Islamabad: Annual consumer inflation hit 27.6% last month, the highest in 48 years, official data on Wednesday showed.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures overall changes in consumer prices based on a representative basket of goods and services, rose 2.9 per cent month-on-month in January, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Urban and rural inflation rose to 24.4% and 32.3% year-on-year, respectively. Core inflation, which does not include volatile food and energy prices, also rose slightly to 15.4% in urban areas and 19.4% in rural areas.
Consumer prices have risen sharply in the past few months, with annual inflation exceeding 20% since last June.
Average consumer price index growth reached 25.4% this year, up from 10.3% last year
January’s 27.6% year-on-year inflation rate was the highest since May 1975, when it was 27.8%, according to investment firm Arif Habib Limited.
The consumer price index was higher than the government’s forecast of 26% and more than double the budget target of 11.5%.
Mohammed Sohail, CEO of brokerage firm Topline Securities, said inflation data had been expected due to the depreciation of the rupee in recent days, the abolishment of subsidies and the increase in taxes.
“This brings average seven-month inflation to 25.4 percent this financial year, compared with 10.3 percent in the same period last year,” he said, according to Reuters.
UK-based economist Yusuf Nazar described soaring food inflation as “killer.”
“Overall rates actually hide or underestimate the misery of people, and what’s really going on behind these numbers.
The data show that the annual change in general inflation in January was in the double digits for most groups.
Categories that rose sharply included perishable foods (61.63%), recreation and culture (44.14%), non-perishable foods (40.3%), transportation (39.1%), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (36.3%), and restaurants. . and hotels (30.1%), furniture and household equipment maintenance (29.9%), sundries and services (28.69%), health (18.73%), clothing and footwear (16.76%), education (10.58%), housing and Utilities (7.83pc), and Communications (1.57pc).
The food groups include: onions, chicken, wheat rice, wheat flour, whole grains, legumes, legumes, besan, mustard oil, legume mash, fresh fruit, edible oil, fresh milk, vegetable bulge, tomato, fish, legumes, meat, fresh Vegetables, potatoes, sugar.
Already high inflation is expected to rise further in February, mainly as petrol and diesel prices rise by Rs 35 per liter.
What’s more, the country is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund to unlock a relief fund to help the struggling economy, a loan program that will encourage the government to raise electricity prices and further fuel inflation. Probability is high.
Published at dawn on February 2, 2023
