Amid a soaring inflation, Pakistan has been ranked the fourth mostexpensive country in the world.
According to The Economist, Pakistan ranked fourth out of 43 countries inthe world in terms of inflation. The rate of inflation in Pakistan clockedin at 9% in September.
As compared to that, the inflation rate in India clocked in at 4.3%, takingit to the 16th position on the list of most expensive countries.
Per the report, the highest inflation around the world is in Argentinawhere the inflation rate is currently at 51.4%.
Turkey ranks second with a 19.6% inflation rate, followed by Brazil with10.2%.
According to the international publication, inflation in Japan is -0.4%.September inflation edges up to 9% in Pakistan
The month of September saw a new round of increased prices of consumeritems as inflation edged up to 9% from 8.4% in August, data released by thePakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on October 1.
On a month-on-month basis, inflation increased by 2.1% owing to significantchanges in three indices — food, housing, and construction.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI), which captures prices in the wholesalemarket, also rose sharply by 19.6% in September compared to 4.3% in thesame month a year ago.
The government has set the average inflation target for the ongoing fiscalyear at 8.5%, indicating that the year-on-year inflation may remain indouble digits in the fiscal year 2021-22.
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The PBS had reported that the overall inflation rate in both the urban andrural areas recorded an increase. The inflation rate in urban areas edgedup by 9.1% in September and rural areas surged to 8.8% over the same monthof the last year. In September last year, inflation in urban areas wasrecorded at 7.7% and in rural areas at 8.4%.
The food inflation rate in villages and towns remained unchanged at 9.1%and in cities rose to 10.8%, which was significantly higher than theprevious month. Non-food inflation was recorded at 8.1% in urban areas and8.5% in rural areas compared to 5% and 7.2% in September 2020.
Core inflation — calculated by excluding food and energy items — rose to6.4% in urban areas in September, reported the national data collectingagency.
The food group saw a price increase of 10.21% in September from the samemonth a year ago. Within the food group, prices of non-perishable fooditems surged by 13.84% on an annualised basis meanwhile the prices of theperishable goods were effectively reduced by 8.3%. The inflation rate forthe housing, water, electricity, gas, and fuel group — having one-fourthweight in the basket — rose to 9.74% last month.
Average prices for the clothing and footwear group increased by 9.19% inSeptember. Prices related to transportation surged by 9.11%.
On a month-on-month basis, the price of chicken skyrocketed 42.04%,followed by a 15.7% surge in pulse masoor, 14.43% increase in eggs, nearly10% wheat, according to the PBS. The prices of vegetables, cooking oil, andsugar recorded an increase of 3.95%, 3.64%, and 3.04% last month.
Meanwhile, electricity charges surged by 11.4% during the period underreview.
The average inflation rate for July-September of the current fiscal yearcame in at 8.58%, according to the PBS.
