The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) recorded a short-term inflation rate of 46.65% last week, while the CPI's monthly inflation rate reached 31.6% in February, the highest it has been in six decades.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-April 1st, 2023) The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released new data indicating that inflation, as measured by the Consumer price Index (CPI), reached an all-time high of 35.37% year-on-year (YoY) in March.
This marks a significant increase from the inflation rate of 12.72% reported in March 2022. The PBS figures show that prices in both urban and rural areas increased by 32.97% and 38.88% year-on-year, respectively.
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) recorded a short-term inflation rate of 46.65% last week, while the CPI's monthly inflation rate reached 31.6% in February, the highest it has been in six decades. Consumer prices have been on the rise over the past few months, with annual inflation remaining above 20% since June of last year.
The finance ministry's Monthly Economic Update & Outlook predicts that inflation will continue to increase due to policy decisions made earlier to raise energy and fuel prices, increase the central bank's policy rate, and depreciate the rupee to obtain funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The ministry's Economic Adviser's Wing has also acknowledged that these policy measures have been ineffective in containing the inflationary spiral.
Despite the State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) contractionary monetary policy, the ministry has noted that inflationary expectations have not yet settled down. The challenge is attributed to demand pressures during Ramadan.
