ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's consumer inflation edged up to 10.49 percent year-on-year in August, accelerating slightly from 10.3 percent a month earlier, following the inclusion of rural markets in the inflation survey, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Wednesday.

Previous inflation figures factored price changes only in Pakistan's urban markets. Under that metric, the inflation rate would have surged to 11.63 percent.

The spike was driven by higher food and fuel prices, continuing the squeeze on household budgets.

Prices of food products such as chicken, tomatoes and onions, which make up a third of the overall basket used to calculate inflation, rose 3.42% from the previous month.