Relentless inflation hits new high of 46%

The rates of essential items continued to rise across the country, as the spiralling inflation rate hit a new peak of 45.64% on a yearly basis, otherwise known as the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), and increased by 0.96% in the previous week.

According to the data issued on Friday by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the prices of 28 essential items went up, 11 declined and 12 remained unchanged during the week that ended on March 16, 2023.

On a yearly basis, the prices of onions increased by 233.89%, cigarettes by 165.86%, gas charges for Q1 by 108.38% diesel by 102.84%, branded tea by 81.29%, petrol by 81.17%, rice irri-6/9 by 78.75%, rice basmati broken by 78.10%, bananas by 77.84%, eggs by 72.19%, pulse moong by 69.44%, wheat flour by 56.27%, and bread by 55.36%.

The prices of tomatoes declined by 21.87% and powdered chillies by 7.42% on a yearly basis.

On a weekly basis, a major price hike was witnessed in the category of food items as the rates of tomatoes went up by 18.06%, branded tea by 9.26%, potatoes by 4.52%, bananas by 4%, sugar by 2.70%, wheat flour by 2.40%, five litres of cooking oil by 1.20%, 2.5 kilogrammes of vegetable ghee by 1.16%.

As for other items, the prices of lawn increased by 5.77%, diesel by 4.65%, shirts by 2.80% and petrol by 1.84%.

During the week, the prices of 11 essential items went down including onions by 15.91%, chicken meat by 5.97%, garlic by 5.73% pulse masoor by 2.27%, eggs by 2.26%, LPG by 1.90%, one kilogramme of vegetable ghee by 1.39%, pulse gram by 1.24%, pulse mash by 1.08%, pulse moong by 0.84%, and mustard oil by 0.64%.

According to the statistics of the week under review, the inflation rate for the group with income of up to Rs17,732 per month on an annual basis was 41.32%.

Similarly, for the group with income from Rs17,733 to Rs22,888 per month, the annual inflation rate stood at 44.23%.

For the group having income from Rs22,889 to Rs29,517 per month, the yearly inflation came to 44.51%.

For those having an income from Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 per month, the annual inflation rate was 45.04%.

The yearly rate of inflation has reached 47.97% for the group having a monthly income of more than Rs44,176.

The still-incomplete talks for the ninth review between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the revival of the loan programme began on January 31 and had to be finished on February 9 but are yet to conclude.