President All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF), Syed Maaz Mahmood has said that high prices of food commodities and energy despite recent cut in the prices of petroleum products have resulted in increase in inflation, leaving trade and industry frustrated.
Quoting the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), he observed that the index spiked 38.28 percent when compared with the corresponding week of last year, as out of the 51 essential commodities covered by SPI, prices of 17 (33.33 percent) items increased, rates of another 17 decreased and prices of the remaining 17 items remained unchanged compared to the previous week. On a weekly basis, the price of tomato rose 6.28 percent, egg 3.48 percent, powdered salt 2.75 percent, cooked beef 1.06 percent, garlic 1.04 percent, tea (prepared) 0.73 percent, beef 0.39 percent and potato 0.35 percent.
Among non-food commodities, the electricity charges for Q1 rose 8.59 percent, energy savers 0.55 percent, shirting 0.47 percent and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) 0.31 percent, according to the PBS.
The year-on-year trend depicted price increases in the range of 58-137 percent among different items.
Maaz Mahmood said that Pakistan has been facing a high inflation for the past couple of years partly due to massive depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar and partly due to a surge in global commodity prices like energy cost. The country largely meets its energy demand through expensive imports.
The monthly inflation reading, measured by the Consumer Price Index, hit a four-month high at 31.4 percent in September 2023 after reaching a six-decade high at 38 percent in May. Inflationary pressures are expected to slow down from January 2024 onwards.
The latest rupee appreciation of 10.62 percent in the past 27 working days to over three-month high at Rs287.62/$ is expected to encourage the government to make a deep cut in petroleum product prices in the upcoming fortnightly review for the second half of Dec. However, the likely surge in gas prices under a condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program may keep inflation elevated and not allow it to fall significantly in the near future. —Agencies
