Pakistan 18th among states with highest inflation rate

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranked 18th among countries most affected by high inflation and surpassed Nigeria and Laos, according to the statistics released by the Trading Economics.

In Asia, Pakistan has jumped to number four, where inflation is the highest of all other countries, while Iran, Syria and Lebanon are the only countries in Asia, where inflation is even higher than in Pakistan.

The inflation rate in Nigeria is 24.08 percent and in Laos 27.8 percent, whereas the inflation rate in Pakistan has jumped to 28.3 percent. Countries like Cuba, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Ghana, Ethiopia and others are left globally, where inflation is even worse than in Pakistan.

Surprisingly, among all the countries, Afghanistan has the lowest inflation rate recorded at 6.5 percent, according to the official website of Trading Economics.

In addition, according to Arif Habib Limited (AHL), headline inflation is expected to rise further in August, higher than the 28.3 percent recorded in July.

“The headline inflation for the month of August 2023 is projected to be 28.6 percent on a year-on-year basis. This is a slight increase compared to the previous month, July 2023, which had an inflation rate of 28.3 percent YoY,” said AHL in its recent report.

On a yearly basis, the increase is significant compared to 27.3 percent recorded in the same period last year. “With this, 2MFY24 average CPI is expected around 28.4 percent YoY compared to 26.1 percent YoY,” it said. AHL also projected monthly inflationary pressures to persist with an expected increase of 2.7 percent month-on-month.

“Specifically, food inflation is expected to contribute significantly to this trend,” AHL said, adding that prices of perishables including rice, vegetables, tomatoes, eggs, sugar, gur, and spices are expected to be higher in August. “As a result, the food inflation rate is projected to increase by 4.1 percent month-on-month, leading to a year-on-year jump in the food index to 43.4 percent.”

Moreover, the transportation index is anticipated to rise by 7.8 percent month-on-month and 22.8 percent year-on-year, the brokerage house shared.