Pakistan’s consumer inflation increased to 9%
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Pakistan’s consumer inflation increased to 9% in September from 8.20% in August 2020.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation of September 2020 increased by 1.54 percent over August 2020 and increased by 9.04 percent over the corresponding month of the last year as a result of an increase in food prices.
The price hike in almost all categories was more than the previous month. However, food showed the highest increase that strongly jacked up the overall inflation.
According to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) month on month basis, the top few commodities which contributed to inflation include tomatoes (44.07 percent), vegetables (30.33%), chicken (18.31%), onions (14.51%), potatoes (6.18%), eggs (5.2%), pulse gram (4.51%), pulse moong (3.46%), spices (3%), pulse mash (2.76%), pulse masoor (1.59%) and milk fresh (1.16%).
The following recorded a decrease in prices: fresh fruits (6.19%), sugar (1.82%), and gram whole (0.48%)
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the forecast for inflation has risen slightly, primarily due to recent supply-side shocks to food prices. SBP expects the average inflation to fall within the previously announced range of 7 – 9 percent during FY21, rather than marginally below.
CPI is the main gauge of price changes at the retail level of all goods and services consumed by private households and roughly reflects changes in the cost of living of entire Pakistan.
