September 12, 2007	Wednesday	Sha'aban 29, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: Food inflation geared to 8.62 per cent in August 2007 over the same month last year owing to persistent increase in price of essential kitchen items, says official figures of Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) issued on Tuesday.

A combination of supply and demand factors had been fuelling the food inflation as selling of essential commodities through utility stores at subsidised rates had also not been helpful in checking rise in food prices during the first two months of this fiscal.

On the other hand, the overall inflation registered a modest increase of 6.45 per cent in August 2007 over the corresponding month last year.

The slow growth in overall inflation in the month under review was largely attributed to a sharp reduction in core inflation — non-food non-energy.

The government had projected 6.5 per cent inflation target to be achieved during the current fiscal.

Tight monetary policy pursued by State Bank of Pakistan was mainly responsible for this secular decline in core inflation. Non-food inflation also exhibited the same declining trend – as it at 2.17 per cent in August, 2007 over the corresponding month of last year.

This showed that the overall inflation has been driven by higher food prices during the first two months of the current fiscal year as opposed to last year where the major culprit was non-food inflation.

Apart from the increase in food items, the medicare charges and education went up by 9.77pc and 6.17pc in August 2007 over the same month last year. It translated into higher charges of the basic facilities like life saving drugs and education fees prices sky-rocketed thus affecting the monthly budgets.

The house rent recorded a growth of 7.17pc in August 2007, textile products 7.51pc, household furniture 6.59pc, fuel and light 2.17pc and laundry 5.07pc over the same month last year. Only transport and communication charges witnessed a negative growth of 2.98pc.

The food items which showed an increase in August 2007 were: tomatoes (43.74pc), chicken farm (29.08pc), onions (17.94pc), pulse masoor (7.81pc), vegetables (6.53pc), mustard oil (3.86pc), cooking oil (3.65pc), milk powder (3.61pc), maida (2.53pc), betel leaves and nuts (2.49pc), milk products (2.39pc), spices (2pc), potatoes (1.92pc), vegetable ghee (1.83pc), sugar (1.76pc), sweets and nimco (1.49pc), cereals (1.42pc), pulse gram (1.39pc), bakery and confectionery (1.36pc), wheat flour (1.27pc), rice (1.07pc) and milk fresh (1pc).

The marriage hall charges rose by 2.31pc), furniture ready made 1.79pc, plastic products 1.08pc, furnishing 1.07pc, tyre and tube 1.08pc, jewellery 1.14pc and shaving articles 0.9pc.