ISLAMABAD: Consumer price inflation clocked in at 2.91 percent year-on-year in July mainly due to increase in prices of non-perishable products, officials said on Tuesday.
Consumer price index (CPI) inflation stood at 0.34 percent in July as compared to June, officials at Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said, while presenting data of monthly inflation during a press conference.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation increased 0.71 percent in July 2017 compared with July 2016. Similarly, CPI for non-perishable food items increased to 1.58 percent, clothing and footwear 3.89 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 5.29 percent, furnishing and household equipment maintenance 2.72 percent and health 13.36 percent, while CPI for transport increased by 3.18 percent. Government set the inflation target around 4.3 percent for the fiscal year of 2017/18. CPI inflation was recorded at 4.16 percent for the fiscal year of 2016/17. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) projected CPI inflation at 4.5 to 5.5 percent in 2016/17. The government was expecting the annual reading at 4.3 percent for FY2017. Inflation was on average 12 percent between 2008 and 2013.
Inflation has so far remained under target, increasing a likelihood of continuation in soft monetary policy stance by the central bank.
In July, SBP kept policy rate stable at 5.75 percent for the next two months, leaving the rate unchanged since July 2016 to support growth pace and to rejuvenate weak external sector. The Bank contained inflation as one the reasons of keeping its key policy rate unchanged. It forecast average CPI inflation in the range of 4.5-5.5 percent for FY2018. PBS collects retail and wholesale prices of products from across the country and computes the CPI and wholesale price index (WPI) on monthly basis, while the sensitive price indicator is calculated on weekly basis.
In July, CPI for communication increased 1.52 percent, recreation and culture 0.21 percent, education 11.36 percent, restaurant and hotel 5.32 percent, while prices of miscellaneous goods and service increased 4.82 percent.
Consumer price inflation for perishable food items decreased 3.77 percent and the SPI for alcoholic beverages and tobacco also decreased 15.93 percent.
Meanwhile, the top items which witnessed increase in prices on year-on-year basis in July 2017 compared to July 2016 included Lipton tea (26.47pc), toilet soap (20.61pc), apple (19.51pc), ginger (17.33pc), iron bar (16.53pc) rice basmati (14.53pc), potatoes (12.24pc), Tapal Danedar (10.58pc), petrol (10.29pc), diesel (9.54pc) and unskilled labour wage (8.71pc).
The items that witnessed decrease in prices during July included tomatoes (45.10pc), capstan cigarettes (25.74pc), mash pulse (24.96pc), cigarettes (22.07pc), moong pulse (18.01pc), garlic (16.71pc), masoor pulse (16.43pc), gram pulse (16.15pc), sugar (15.80pc), besan (12.04pc), gram whole black (10.18pc), onion (7.03pc) and wheat flour bag (2.21pc).
In July, WPI increased 0.66 percent, while the SPI witnessed negative growth of 0.45 percent.
