ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: Disruptions in supply of essential items, thanks to the increased government exports to the neighbouring countries and Sri Lanka, pushed food inflation beyond single digit in November in the capital and 18 major cities of the country.

The key kitchens items like potatoes, tomatoes and onions become dearer thus putting more pressure on the monthly budget of the income group earning Rs3,000 to Rs12,000.

Official figures made available to Dawn showed that the food inflation in Islamabad was recorded at 11.3 per cent, Rawalpindi 11.2 per cent, Attock 13.6 per cent, Mardan 11.9 per cent, Bannu 10.8 per cent and Peshawar 11.2 per cent.

The price movements of individual items reveals that prices of 51 commodities including fresh milk, beef, sugar, chicken, pulses gram, mash and moong, cooked mutton, honey, onion, tomatoes, and chilies exhibited inflation in the range of 10 to 145 per cent year-on-year in November 2006.

The price of onion has shown the highest increase of more than 146 per cent in November followed by basen 52 per cent, pulse gram 50 per cent, chilies 49 per cent, and sugar 21 per cent.

Other cities witnessing double digit inflation include Okara 15.7 per cent, followed by Multan 14 per cent, Vehari 13 per cent, Kunri 15.2 per cent, Gujranwala 12 per cent, Lahore 13.1 per cent, Quetta 11.9 per cent, Bahawalpur 11.5 per cent, DG Khan 11.6 per cent, Bahawalnagar 11.4 per cent, Shahdadpur 10.4 per cent, Sargodha 11 per cent and Hyderabad 10.2 per cent.

Analysts said if inflation is unanticipated, the poor will be harmed disproportionately as they have weaker bargaining power and are generally unable to hedge against inflation. On the contrary, since the poor are frequently indebted, the real cost of their debt falls with inflation. This higher food inflation directly affects the poor through a decline in their real wages owing to the short run rigidity of nominal wages.

If the source of inflation is higher food prices, then this could have an ambiguous impact on the level of poverty. On the one hand, farmers who market their surplus food production, benefit, but on the other hand, the landless in rural areas and the urban poor are impacted adversely, added the analysts.

Province wise data of inflation indicates that within the four provinces, the Punjab experienced the highest inflation in November followed by the NWFP. The average inflation in Punjab was 8.7 per cent during the month with food inflation at 11.4 per cent and non-food inflation at 6.8 per cent.

On the other hand Sindh witnessed the lowest inflation to single digit—as against provinces as well as national average.

Following the trend of the last month, average inflation in Islamabad “the federal capital” was higher than that in provinces; it was true for overall as well as food and non-food inflation.