The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation increased by 7.68 percent during September 2014 as compared to the same period last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed. Member, National Accounts, Field Services, PSLM, Prices and Trade, Arif Mehmood Cheema while addressing a press conference on Wednesday said CPI inflation increased by 7.52 percent in July-September 2014-15 over July-September 2013-14 while it increased by 0.35 percent in September 2014 as compared to August 2014.
According to monthly inflation report released by the PBS in July 2014, the CPI increased by 0.35 percent, Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) increased by 0.24 percent and 0.15 percent, respectively. The PBS collects the retail and wholesale prices and computes the CPI, WPI on monthly basis while SPI on weekly basis.
Analysis of the CPI data released by the PBS showed that prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages soared to 6.47 percent during September 2014, over the same period last year and prices of non-perishable food items recorded an increase of 4.77 percent, while rates of perishable food items increased by 15.95 percent.
The cost of alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased by 22.37 percent during the period under review, clothing and footwear 8.98 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels 8.84 percent, furnishing and household equipment maintenance 8.49 percent, health 6.24 percent, transport 5.43 percent, communication 0.15 percent, recreation and culture 4.11 percent, education 15.28 percent, restaurant and hotels 9.17 percent while prices of miscellaneous items surged by 6.06 percent.
About the core inflation pertaining to CPI, Cheema said trimmed core inflation was 7.1 percent during September 2014 over September 2013, while it was 7.6 percent during September 2013 over September 2012. He maintained that the non-food and non-energy core inflation was at 8.1 percent during September 2014 over the same period last year, while it stood at 8.6 percent in September 2013 over September 2012.
The food and non-food items that showed prominent increase in their prices during September 2014 over September 2013 that include: potatoes (99.71 percent), cigarettes (22.60 percent), pulse moong (19.70 percent), pulse mash (19.04 percent), honey (16.13 percent), motor vehicle tax (36.71 percent), electricity (15.82 percent) and education (15.28 percent).
Top few commodities which varied from previous year average, ie, July-September 2013-14 include: potatoes (111.58 percent), motor vehicle tax (36.71 percent), pulse moong (22.82 percent), cigarettes (22.61 percent), electricity (15.82 percent), pulse mash (15.79 percent), milk powder (15.73 percent), education (15.69 percent) and cotton cloth (15.24 percent). The food and non-food items that witnessed significant increase in their prices during September 2014 over August 2014 include: tomatoes (33.88%), sugar (6.33%), gur (2.75%), honey(2.32%), pulse mash (2.24%), onions (2.19%), tea (1.42%) , eggs (1.21%), motor fuel (0.55%) and kerosene oil (0.14%).
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