Inflation in Pakistan reaches all time high of 46%

Pakistan: High inflation leaves less money in the hands of the people (Image courtesy: IANS)

Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), reached an all-time high of 46.65 per cent year-on-year for the week ending on March 22, in comparison to last week 45.64’s per cent YoY, as per data by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), media reports said.

On a week-on-week basis, short-term inflation increased by 1.80 per cent as tomatoes, potatoes and wheat flour became costlier, Samaa TV reported.

The SPI for the current week ended on March 22 recorded increase of 1.80 per cent.

Major increase is observed in the prices of food items – tomatoes (71.77 per cent), wheat flour (42.32 per cent), potatoes (11.47 per cent), bananas (11.07 per cent), tea Lipton (7.34 per cent), pulse mash (1.57 per cent), tea prepared (1.32 per cent) and gur (1.03 per cent), and non-food items like georgette (2.11 per cent), lawn (1.77 per cent) and long cloth (1.58 per cent), Samaa TV reported.

On the other hand, decrease was observed in the prices of chicken (8.14 per cent), chillies powdered (2.31 per cent), LPG (1.31 per cent), mustard oil & garlic (1.19 per cent) each, pulse Gram & onions (1.06 per cent each), vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.83 per cent), cooking oil 5 litre (0.21 per cent), pulse moong (0.17 per cent), pulse masoor (0.15 per cent), and Eggs (0.03 per cent).

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98 per cent) items increased, 12 (23.53 per cent) items decreased, and 13 (25.49 per cent) items remained stable, Samaa TV reported.

The year on year trend depicts increase of 46.65 per cent, onions (228.28 per cent), cigarettes (165.88 per cent), wheat flour (120.66 per cent), gas charges for Q1 (108.38 per cent), diesel (102.84 per cent), tea Lipton (94.60 per cent), bananas (89.84 per cent), rice Irri-6/9 (81.51 per cent), rice Basmati broken (81.22 per cent), petrol (81.17 per cent), eggs (79.56 per cent), pulse moong (68.64 per cent), potatoes (57.21 per cent) and pulse mash (56.46 per cent), while decrease is observed in the price of chillies powdered (9.56 per cent).

Also read: Why Pakistan can’t rejoice at falling current account deficit

IANS