Abb Takk News
Business MOST POPULAR News Ticker Pakistan Top News TRENDING

Inflation Reaches Nearly All-time High Level Of 35.4%

Islamabad: Pakistan’s monthly inflation blew past forecasts in March and soared to a nearly all-time high level of 35.4%.

The fresh inflation reading issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday has also multiplied the prospects of a further rise in interest rates in the upcoming monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for April 4.

Owing to the high inflation people feeling more pain from some of the fastest rising consumer prices amid straining budgets as cost of living continues to outstrip average incomes.

The pace of increase in the prices endorsed the expectations of the finance ministry that just a day ago said inflation was expected to stay at an elevated level owing to market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gap of essential items, exchange rate depreciation, and recent upward adjustment of administered prices of petrol and diesel.

The monthly inflation rate; however, declined to 3.7% in March over February.

The inflation situation has worsened to its worst, steeping the masses, whose purchasing power has eroded by leaps and bounds, into misery, as the price of almost every edible item has gone through the roof over a period of months.

Core inflation, which was calculated after excluding the volatile energy and food prices, increased in March to 18.6% in urban areas and 23.1% in rural areas.

Analysts believe Pakistan is now heading towards hyperinflation — a situation when prices are out of control and in the territory of a 50% surge.

The inflation rate hit the roof in rural areas where it was recorded at 38.9%, while it jumped to 33% in the cities, according to PBS.

There was a huge increase in the food inflation rate, mostly because of the disruption of supply chains and weak checks.

Food inflation rose steeply to 50.2% in rural areas and it also significantly increased to 47.1% in cities last month, the PBS data showed.

The federal and provincial governments are even unable to ensure steady essential food supplies.

The prices are soaring at a time when the economy has slowed down significantly and poverty, as well as unemployment, are spiking.

The prices of a majority of consumer goods remained out of the reach of the people, and a major surge was witnessed in rural areas where income levels were already low.

The food group prices surged by 47.15% in March against the same month a year ago.

There was an unprecedented increase in both perishable and non-perishable food items.