‘Karachi cheapest city in Pakistan’

KARACHI: Karachi emerged as the cheapest city among five major cities in Pakistan where the consumer price index inflation (CPI) was recorded at 1.7 percent year-on-year in August, 2017, as compared to 3.3 percent a year ago.

However, Lahore remained the most expensive city of the country in terms of cost of living.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), in its detailed report titled Inflation Monitor-August 2017 issued recently, said CPI inflation in federal and provincial capitals of Pakistan showed a mixed trend during August.

“Among these five cities, the lowest inflation was observed in Karachi at 1.7 percent, while the highest inflation was observed in Lahore at 5.1 percent,” the SBP said.

The food inflation for Karachi was 0.7 percent and non-food was 2.5 percent. The SBP’s report showed that Lahore witnessed the highest food inflation of four percent and non-food inflation of six percent.

The central bank didn’t mention any reason for the reduction in the rate of inflation in Karachi. However, analysts attribute it to slowdown in the cost of living. The city is the largest trading and financial hub of the country.

Other major cities like Islamabad and Peshawar are included in the list of high inflation, while Quetta saw decline in CPI inflation. The inflation for Islamabad was five percent. It stood at 2.1 percent in the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The main CPI inflation for the country fell to 3.4 percent in to percent in the
corresponding period of last year.