Inflation eased to 5.65pc in January

ISLAMABAD: The inflation rate eased to 5.65 percent in January, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Monday, from 8 percent the previous month.

A decrease in the prices of vegetables, pulses, eggs, spices and chicken helped bring down the consumer price index (CPI), the bureau said. It said the Urban CPI recorded a decrease of 0.16pc while Rural CPI recorded a drop of 0.29 percent. The average inflation rate from July-January (2020-21) was 8.19 percent and food inflation at 13.79 percent over the year earlier period.

After touching as high as over 14 percent early lastyear, the January reading was the first time that core inflation has come down to the level of what the PTI government had inherited when it came to power in August 2018.

“Our efforts to reduce inflation are now showing results,” Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted on Sunday. “Consumer price index and core inflation are both now lower than when our government was formed,” he said.

Planning Minister Asad Umar also said on Twitter that inflation during January was down to 5.7 percent, while core inflation was at 5.4pc, both lower than when the PTI government took over.

“In July 2018, prior to the PTI government’s formation, CPI was 5.8pc and core inflation was 7.6 percent,” the minister wrote. The opposition blames the government's mismanagement of the economy for having brought the GDP down to as low as 0.4 percent from 5.8 percent during the PML-N government and the inflation jumping to as high as 14 percent from below 4 percent. IMF has forecast the economy to grow 1.5 percent this year against the government's target of 2.3 percent in the fiscal year 2020-21.