Pakistani consumer price inflation rose significantly
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KARACHI: Pakistani consumer price inflation rose to 14.56% in January, news agency Reuters report said quoting the statistics bureau on Saturday.
CPI inflation had stood at 12.63% in December.
Inflation with new base year (2015-16) has increased by 14.56 percent in January 2020. Meanwhile, on old methodology (base 2007-08), the inflation has gone to 13.07 percent in the previous month (January 2020) over the corresponding period of last year. New inflation rate is higher than the projections of the government, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Prices of food and beverages up by 23.6pc this Jan.
The earlier highest inflation for Pakistan stood at 17 percent in the year 2007-08.
The inflation in January was attributed to the increase in food prices such as wheat and flour, pulses, sugar, jaggery and edible oil, according to data.
Additionally, gas prices rose 54.84pc YoY in urban areas, and motor fuels rose 25.69pc in urban areas and 26.4pc in rural areas.
However, on a month-on-month (MoM) basis, tomato prices decreased 8.36pc in urban and 8.22pc in rural areas, while onion prices also saw a decrease from December 2019 (18.37pc in urban and 20.52pc in rural areas).
This unusually high inflation rate of 14.56pc stands in sharp contrast to the official line the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is promoting.
