Headline inflation eases to 6.57 percent in March

The headline inflation eased to 6.57 percent in March 2013 as compared to 7.4 percent in previous month and 10.8 percent for the same month of last year. In the monthly inflation data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday; however, CPI index was not accessible due to some technical factors.
According to the PBS, price of food and non alcoholic beverage increased by 5.86 percent in March 2013, non-perishable food items 7.12 percent, perishable food items -1.81 percent; alcoholic beverage and tobacco 16.90 percent, clothing & footwear 12.59 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas & fuels 3.56 percent; furnishing & household equipment maintenance 9.34 percent, health 12.40 percent; transport 6 percent; communication 5.07 percent; recreation & culture 18.16 percent; education 8.67 percent, restaurants & hotels 8.57 percent and miscellaneous increased by 7.45 percent.
The main contributors to month-on-month and year-on-year percentage whose prices witnessed increase included onions (29.50 percent), tomatoes (17.08 percent), tea (5.44 percent), eggs (4.7 1 percent), fresh fruits (4.18 percent), beverages (2.5g percent), fresh vegetables (1.23 percent), beans (0.91 percent), cereals (0.78 percent), nimco (0.75 percent), milk powder (0.63 percent), jam, tomato ketchup & pickles (058 percent) and bakery & confectionery (0.38 percent). The price of chicken decreased by (12.04 percent), spices (6.11 percent), pulse gram (5.99 percent), besan (4.67 percent), gram whole (4.60 percent), potatoes (2.48 percent), fish (1.73 percent), gur (0.76 percent), pulse masoor (0.50 percent), cooking oil (0.36 percent), wheat flour (0.32 percent), betal leaves & nuts (0.26 percent), pulse mash and vegetable ghee (0.14 percent each).
Non-food items prices of which witness increase included newspaper (8.19 percent), text books (3.18 percent), water supply charges (2.88 percent), transport services (1.49 percent), education (1.19 percent), construction input items (1.11 percent), cleaning & laundry (0.97 percent), cotton cloth (0.95 percent), tailoring (0.94 percent), furniture (0.86 percent) and readymade garments (0.82 percent).