Pakistan’s consumer inflation rate jumped to 10.3% year-on-year in July, 2019 as compared to an increase of 8.9% in June 2019 and 5.8% in July 2018. The last time inflation entered the double digits was in November 2013 and recorded at 10.9%.
On a month-on-month basis, it increased by 2.3% in July 2019 as compared to an increase of 0.4% in the previous month and an increase of 0.9% in the corresponding month i.e. July 2018.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the increase was driven by higher food and fuel prices with a growing squeeze on household budgets. There was a significant increase in fuel and energy prices which were up by 143% and 23%. The increase in overall prices has come one the back of Rupee’s devaluation against the US dollar.
WPI inflation on YoY basis increased by 13.5% in July 2019 as compared to an increase of 12.7% a month earlier and an increase of 10.5% in July 2018.
The core inflation measured by non-food non-energy CPI (Core NFNE) increased by 7.8% on (YoY) basis in July 2019 as compared to an increase of 7.2% in the previous month and 7.6% in July 2018.
SPI inflation on YoY basis increased by 12.2% in July 2019 as compared to an increase of 10.6% a month earlier and an increase of 3.6% in July 2018.
Top few commodities which varied from previous year i.e. July, 2018 with a double-digit increase as compared with July 2019 were:
- Onions (58.83%),
- Pulse Moong (47.62%),
- Cigarettes (37.37%),
- Gur (31.37%),
- Sugar (30.72%),
- Pulse Mash (Washed) (22.27%),
- Potatoes (21.07%),
- Spices (12.91%),
- Pulse Gram (12.29%),
- Meat (11.97%),
- Pulse Masoor (10.78%),
- Wheat Flour (8.63%),
- Cooking Oil (8.57%),
- Rice (6.83%),
- Tea (5.39%)
- Milk Fresh (5.24%)
The Non-food items that witnessed an increase in prices during July 2019 against the same month of the last year were:
- Gas (142.57%),
- Motor Fuel (22.68%),
- Motor Vehicles (20.36%),
- Personal Equipments (18.17%),
- Construction Input Items (14.97%),
- Motor Vehicle Accessories (13.27%),
- Electricity (11.33%),
- Transport Services (8.14%),
- Personal Care (6.83%)
- Household Servant (6.20%).
The items that saw a decrease in price during the month of July 2019 as compared with July 2018 were:
- Tomatoes (18.07%),
- Eggs (11.45%),
- Betel Leaves & Nuts (10.26),
- Gram Whole (3.46%)
- Chicken (2.91%).
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics collects the retail prices and computes CPI for a basket of 487 items collected from 40 cities and 76 markets. For each item, four quotations are collected from each market on a monthly basis.
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And all the while, we are being brain feed,,,, “aap ny ghabrana nai aaa,,,, sab theek ho jana ha,,,,”.