Inflation breaks all records, climbs to 35.37pc
- By Aleem Malik -
- Apr 01, 2023
KARACHI: Pakistan’s monthly inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), reached an all-time high of 35.37 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in March, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed Saturday.
According to data released by PBS, prices in urban and rural areas increased 32.97pc and 38.88pc year-on-year, respectively.
There was a huge increase in the food inflation rate, mostly because of the disruption of supply chains and weak checks.
Food inflation rose steeply to 50.2% in rural areas and it also significantly increased to 47.1% in cities last month, the PBS data showed.
Weekly inflation remains above 45pc
On the other hand, short-term inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose to 45.36 per cent on annualised basis during the seven-day period ended March 30, data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.
The SPI dropped 0.36pc week-on-week with a slight decline in prices of onion, tomatoes and cooking oil.
For the week under review, SPI was recorded at 249.66 points against 250.66 points registered last week and 171.82 points recorded during the week ended March 31, 2022.
Out of 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 23 items soared while those of 11 items decreased, however, rates of 17 items remained unchanged.
PBS data noted decrease in prices of onions (15.10 percent), chicken (11.96 percent), tomatoes (10.26 percent), LPG (1.35 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (1.24 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (1.07 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.77 percent), pulse gram (0.42 percent), firewood (0.35 percent), pulse moong (0.22 percent) and mustard oil (0.17 percent).
The items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were cigarettes (165.88pc), onions (127.07pc), wheat flour (123.22pc), gas charges for Q1 (108.38pc), diesel (102.84pc), tea Lipton (98.08pc), eggs (96.67pc), bananas (94.89pc), rice basmati broken (83.65pc), petrol (81.17pc), rice Irri-6/9 (79.17pc), pulse moong (67.85pc) and potatoes (56.44pc).