ISLAMABAD: Consumer inflation accelerated in September on rising food and energy prices, staying the upper cap of the central bank's comfort zone for a eighth straight month.
CPI inflation rose 8.98 percent year-on-year in September, up from 8.35 percent in August and 9.04 percent in corresponding month of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.
Analysts said inflation accelerated in September, at its fastest pace in two months as fuel and food prices rose at a higher pace, putting pressure on the central bank to tame prices amid a faltering economic recovery.
They said a weak rupee, massive food import and higher prices of petroleum products continue to exert upward pressure on inflation.
State Bank of Pakistan forecasts a 7-9 percent target band for inflation in the current fiscal year, while the government set an average inflation target of 8 percent.
PBS data showed that the CPI on month-on-month basis increased by 2.1 percent in the month under review as compared to 0.6 percent in previous month of August 1.5 percent increase in September 2020.
CPI is a basket of goods monitoring retail prices of 374 items in 35 major cities.
In CPI basket, two components having highest weightage that include food and beverages have share of more than one-third (or 34.58 percent) and utility charges (housing, water, electricity and fuel) with around one-fourth (or 23.63pc share) sharply become dearer during September.
The first quarter (July-Sept 2021-22) average inflation stood at 8.58 percent against 8.84 percent in same period of last year. The government has targeted to keep inflation under eight percent in FY22.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Sensitive Prices Index (SPI) in September increased by 19.61 percent and 16.63 percent respectively when compared to September 2020. The higher reading of the WPI and SPI are signaling that in coming months the CPI may go up further. The recent increase in petroleum products prices and LPG would further jack up October CPI reading.
While excluding the food and energy components, the core CPI increased for urban and rural areas. Urban core inflation recorded at 6.4 percent year-on-year in September 2021 and rural 6.2 percent against August 2021 reading of 6.3 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.
Urban CPI recorded at 9.13 percent year-on-year in September 2021 against 7.68 percent in August 2021. Similarly, rural inflation arrived at 8.77 percent against 11.12 percent in same month of last year.
Food inflation was recorded at 10.21 percent, the highest increase among all the categories of the CPI basket. Food inflation increased mostly due to hike in prices of chicken, onions, pulses, wheat flour, cooking oil, ghee, vegetables and sugar.
Besides, utility charges --housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel increased by 9.74 percent, furnishing and household equipment maintenance charges went up by 9.25 percent, clothing and footwear 9.19 percent, transportation charges increased by 9.11 percent, health charges 7.97 percent. Similarly, hoteling charges up by 7.78 percent, recreation and culture 6.87 percent, communication charges 2.77 percent and education charges increased by 2.63 percent over the corresponding month of last year.
The food items that witnessed increase in the prices during September over August included Chicken (47.95pc), Onions (39.56pc), Pulse Masoor (18.45pc), Eggs (11.82pc), Wheat Flour (9.4pc), Gram Whole (8.78pc), Wheat (7.01pc), Vegetables (6.07pc), Pulse Gram (5.39pc), Besan (4.47pc), Cooking oil (3.93pc), Vegetable ghee (3.26pc), Sugar (2.83pc), Mustard oil (2.17pc) and Meat (1.75pc).
Whereas, tomatoes prices decreased by 8.56 percent, Potatoes (5.65pc), Pulse Moong (2.80pc), Condiments and Spices (2.09pc) and Fruits (1.26pc).
The non-food items that recorded increase during the month included electricity Charges (11.4pc), Motor Vehicles Accessories (1.33pc), Woolen Cloth (1.17pc), Motor Fuels (1.16pc), Washing Soaps/Detergents (0.86pc) and Hosiery (0.73pc). Whereas Liquefied Hydrocarbons price reduced by 4.56pc.