Inflation Touches 9% in March Ahead of Ramzan

The average inflation rate from July 2020 to March 2021 of the current fiscal year stayed at 8.64%

Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation in Pakistan reached 9.1% in March from 8.7% in February, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Thursday.

According to PBS, inflation increased by 0.36% mainly due to a rise in prices of essential items including cooking oil, sugar, wheat, pulses, petroleum products, and power charges.

In March, the wheat prices were 35% higher, followed by 24% average increase in prices of sugar, 19% wheat flour, 20% pulses, and 17% vegetable ghee, according to the PBS.

At the same time, non-food inflation also followed an upward trajectory for the past few months due to hiked energy rates.

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As per PBS report, in urban areas, the food items which saw hiked prices during March 2021 over February this year included eggs (12.96%), fruits (10%), potatoes (9.54%), chicken (6.58%), sugar (4.82%), tomatoes (4.67%), pulse mash (4.57%), pulse gram (4.39%), rice (1.61%) and wheat flour (1.46%).

The rates of the commodities that decreased include onions (2.37%), dry fruits (2.19%), fish (1.78%) and vegetables (1.48%).

The average inflation rate from July 2020 to March 2021 of the current fiscal year stayed at 8.64%.

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