KARACHI: Inflation has witnessed a decline in the ongoing fiscal year, 2020-21, as compared to the previous year in Pakistan, ARY NEWS reported quoting a briefing by the finance ministry officials on Monday.
“The rate of inflation stood at 10.5 percent in the previous fiscal year as compared to a declining trend of 8.2 percent in the ongoing year,” a meeting of the price monitoring committee headed by the special secretary finance was briefed.
It said that the first two months of the ongoing fiscal year witnessed inflation rate at 8.7 percent as compared to the corresponding months of the last year which saw the rate at 9.4 percent.
The government is monitoring the pricing of daily commodities while strict action is also taken against hoarders, it was informed.
A handout issued after the meeting stated that a clear difference between rates of wholesalers and retailers is being pointed out and strict action is being ordered against overcharging.
The committee directed the officials to ensure availability of the daily-use products to consumers on minimum rates.
It is pertinent to mention here that the consumer price index (CPI) based monthly inflation eased at 8.2 percent in August from 9.3 percent during July due to decline in prices of essential food items, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) report.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data showed that consumer price index (CPI) inflation increased by 0.6% in August as compared to an increase of 2.5% in the previous month and an increase of 1.6% in August 2019.
Prices of chicken fell 36.45 percent in August over July, followed by tomatoes (31.83pc), fresh fruits (23.15pc), pulse moong (6.5pc), vegetables (2.78pc), pulse mash (2.28pc), fish (1.87pc), gram whole (1.78pc), eggs (1.33pc), pulse gram (1.29pc), besan (1.21pc), pulse masoor (0.98pc), vegetable ghee (0.86pc) and cooking oil (0.59pc). Prices of chicken also decreased 38.28 percent year-on-year, followed by onions (33.02pc), fish (8.5pc) and fresh fruits (1.32pc).
