Pakistan''s inflation rate accelerated to 4.94 percent year-on-year in March from 4.22 percent in February, the Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. On a month-on-month basis, prices rose by 0.84 percent in March, the bureau said. The rise in month-on-month inflation was mostly due to higher prices of food items such as tomatoes, green chillies and chicken.
BR Staff Reporter Zaheer Abbasi adds: According to official inflation data uploaded by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on its website and subsequently released by Chief Statistician Asif Bajwa at a media briefing, CPI stood at 4.94 per cent in March 2017 compared to the same month of the last fiscal year.
The inflation of 4.94 per cent is the highest in 29-month after October 2014, when it had been registered at 5.82 per cent. Average inflation rate in July-March 2016-17 over the same period of the last fiscal year stood at 4.01 per cent and 0.84 per cent in March 2017 over the previous month. Asif Bajwa said that some seasonal factors as well as increase in prices of petroleum products led to increase in inflation. Prices of perishable food items witnessed an increase of 16.06 per cent, health, 13.75 per cent, and education, 10.90 per cent, in March 2017 over the same month a year ago.
The prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, according to PBS, witnessed an increase of 4.64 per cent, non-perishable food items, 2.92 per cent, and alcoholic beverages and tobacco turned dearer by 12.44 per cent. The prices of clothing & footwear increased by 3.56 per cent, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels by 4.83 per cent, furnishing and household equipment maintenance, 2.32 per cent, transport, 4.42 per cent, communication, 1.49 per cent, recreation & culture, 1.25 per cent, restaurant & hotel, 3.52 per cent, and miscellaneous goods & services by 4.15 per cent.
The commodities which contributed to inflation in March 2017 over March 2016 were tomatoes whose price increased by 128.17 per cent, potatoes, 49.92 per cent, Dettol medium, 44.27 per cent, gram whole yellow, 42.81 per cent, LPG, 23.86 per cent, chicken, 18.92 per cent, green chillies, 16.64 per cent, petrol, 16.30 per cent, tea Lipton, 16.14 per cent, toilet soap lifebuoy, 15.97 per cent, diesel, 15.07 per cent, iron bars, 14.31 per cent, and price of pulse gram went up by 10.00 per cent.
The prices of pulse Mash decreased by 19.96 per cent on year on year basis, onion, 17.6 per cent, pulse Moong, 17.22 per cent, pulse masoor whole, 9.09 per cent, pulse masoor washed, 8.93 per cent, and motorcycle tyre without tube, 5.66 per cent. The consumer price index in July-March 2016-17 stood at 4.01 per cent when compared to the same period of the last fiscal year due to 2.92 per cent increase in cost of food & non-alcoholic beverages, non-perishable food items, 2.71 per cent, perishable food items, 4.12 per cent, alcoholic beverages & tobacco, 15.77 per cent, clothing & footwear, 4.47 per cent, housing, water, electricity, gas fuels and others, 5.02 per cent.
The PBS stated that during the month of March 2017 over the same period of last fiscal year trimmed core inflation was recorded at 4.5 per cent against 3.8 per cent for the same month of last fiscal year and non-food & non-energy core inflation stood at 5.3 per cent against 4.7 per cent.
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