The country's annual inflation rate fell to 3.96 percent in November from 5.82 percent in October. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) director Shaukat Zaman Butt said prices rose 0.51 percent in November on a month-on-month basis while the average annual inflation rate for July through November was 6.45 percent.
According to him, with a significant decrease in petroleum products' and food commodities' prices, the CPI inflation was recorded at 3.96 in November 2014 as compared to the same period of last year, which is the lowest percentage of inflation recorded after the revision of base year in 2007-2008 in which weight for each item was assigned according to consumption pattern of the households. According to him, CPI inflation will further decrease in coming months. He added that the CPI inflation decreased by 0.51 percent in November 2014 over October 2014.
According to monthly inflation report released by the PBS in November 2014, the CPI decreased by 0.51 percent, Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) decreased by 0.99 percent and 0.13 percent respectively. The PBS collects the retail and wholesale prices and computes the CPI, WPI on a monthly basis while SPI on weekly basis.
An analysis of the CPI data released by the PBS shows that prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages soared by 4.53 percent during July-November 2014-15, over July-November 2013-14 and prices of non-perishable food items recorded an increase of 4.42 percent while prices of perishable food items increased by 5.07 percent.
The cost of alcoholic beverages and tobacco increased by 22.30 percent during the period under the review, clothing and footwear 9.06 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas and fuels 7.61 percent, furnishing and household equipment maintenance 8.29 percent, health 6.44 percent, transport 3.07 percent, communication 0.16 percent, recreation and culture 4.36 percent, education 15.25 percent, restaurant and hotels 9.55 percent while prices of miscellaneous items surged by 6.40 percent.
About the core inflation pertaining to CPI, Butt said trimmed core inflation was 5.3 percent during November 2014 over November 2013, while it was 9.2 percent during November 2013 over November 2012. He maintained that the non-food and non-energy core inflation was at 6.9 percent during November 2014 over the same period last year, while it stood at 8.5 percent in November 2013 over November 2012.
The food and non-food items that showed prominent increase in their prices during July-November 2014-15 over July-November 2013-14 include: potatoes (66.48%), motor vehicle tax (36.71%), pulse moong (22.63%), cigarettes (22.52%), pulse mash (18.00%), education (15.25%) and milk powder (14.88%). Top few commodities which showed increase in prices during November 2014 over November 2013 include: pulse moong (24.15%), cigarettes (22.38%), pulse mash (21.58%), fresh fruits (20.08%), pulse masoor (15.09%) and motor vehicle tax (36.71%) and woolen readymade garments (17.23%).
The food and non-food items that witnessed increase in prices during November 2014 over October 2014 include: Eggs (8.71%), pulse moong (5.42%), vegetables (4.41%), dry fruits (2.10%) and woolen readymade garments (6.89%) and postal services (2.36%).
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