In August 2023, Pakistan witnessed a notable development in its economiclandscape, as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation recorded ayear-on-year increase of 27.4 percent. This figure marked a slight respitecompared to the previous month, where inflation had reached 28.3 percent,and a marginal increase from the 27.3 percent recorded in August 2022. ThePakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released these alarming statistics,revealing the economic challenges facing the nation.
On a month-on-month basis, the inflation rate for August 2023 amounted to1.7 percent. While this represented a decrease from the 3.5 percent surgeobserved in the previous month, it remained substantially higher than the2.4 percent increase recorded in August 2022. This data indicates thepersistence of inflationary pressures within the Pakistani economy.
Looking ahead, concerns loom over the possibility of even higher inflationin the coming months. A significant contributor to this concern is therecent substantial increase in petroleum prices imposed by the government.However, the situation is not solely attributed to rising fuel costs; therapid depreciation of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar over thepast two weeks has the potential to exacerbate the inflationary challenge.
