Pakistan’s Consumer Price Index-based inflation (CPI) showed an increase of 27.3 percent on a year-on-year basis in August 2022 against an increase of 24.9 in the last month and 8.4 percent in August 2021, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.
The average inflation during the first two months of the ongoing financial year 2023 is 26.1 percent against 8.36 percent in 2022. Economists say this is the highest monthly inflation since October 1973.
It is to be mentioned that the impact of floods is yet to realize.
On a month-on-month basis, CPI rose 2.4 percent in Aug 2022 against an increase of 4.3 percent in the last month and an increase of 0.6 percent in Aug 2021.
The National Consumer Price Index for Aug 2022 reported an increase of 2.45 percent over July 2022 and grew by 27.26 percent over the corresponding month of the last year.
Read more: Weekly inflation decreases slightly to 37.69% amid reduction in food prices
The PBS data further reports that the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation on a YoY basis escalated by 41.2 percent in Aug 2022 against an increase of 38.5 percent a month earlier and a rise of 17.1 percent in Aug 2021, showing the inflation is likely to further increase in coming days and months.
Moreover, the prices of food and non-food items including eggs, pulse masoor, rice, wheat, milk, potatoes, electricity charges, motor fuels, stationery, motor vehicle accessories, construction input items, cleaning & laundering, liquefied hydrocarbons, and woolen cloth increased.
CPI inflation Urban reported an increase of 26.2 percent on a year-on-year basis in August 2022 against the rise of 23.6 percent in the last month and 8.3 percent in Aug 2021. On a month-on-month basis, it grew 2.6 percent in Aug 2022 against an increase of 4.5 percent in the preceding month and an increase of 0.5 percent in Aug 2021.
In addition, CPI inflation Rural escalated by 28.8 percent on a year-on-year basis in Aug 2022 compared to an increase of 26.9 percent in the last month and 8.4 percent in Aug 2021. While on a month-on-month basis, it grew by 2.2 percent in Aug 2022 as compared to a growth of 4.2 percent in the last month and an increase of 0.7 percent in Aug 2021.
