KARACHI: Motor fuel inflation witnessed largest increase of 28 per cent on a year-on-year basis in August after headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month increased by 5.8pc, showed data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday.

According to SBP’s Inflation Monitor among those in the non-food items that contributed to CPI, house rent, which holds the highest weight of 21.8pc, reported a 7.58pc increase in August compared to 7.19pc last year, .

For more than a decade, house rent has been showing an increase while its weighted contribution has also risen in the CPI basket. The country is facing a shortage of about 10 million houses which is one of the reasons for higher house rent particularly in the urban areas.

According to SBP’s Inflation Monitor, motor fuel witnessed the highest inflation of 27.95pc in August compared to 6.41pc in August 2017. The weight of motor fuel was 3.03pc in CPI basket while the weighted contribution rose to 9.64pc in August.

Education remained under the grip of high inflation which increased to 12.93pc in August from 10.85pc in Aug 2017. The weighted contribution in CPI noted as 5.8pc in August.

Transport services was another major sector which witnessed very high inflation as it jumped to 14.16pc in August compared to just 0.1pc in August 2017. This is also the reflection of sharp increase in fuel prices.

The overall non-food group noted an inflation of 7.6pc in August compared to 5pc in Aug 2017. However, the overall food group showed a low inflation of 3.3pc in August compared to 1.2pc in August 2017.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018