ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s inflation entered double digits and rose 10.9 per cent in November 2013 from a year ago, the highest increase after 15 months.

Upward adjustments in prices of petroleum products in the last three months followed by substantial increase in electricity tariff fuelled the total inflation.

Inflation, measured through Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased by 1.3pc from the previous month, suggested data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics here on Monday.

The previous government had brought down inflation to single digit. However, as government passed on the impact of increase in petroleum products and electricity tariff to end users, and also introduced certain tax measures, the cumulative impact dragged up the overall inflation to double digits.

Rupee depreciation also led to increase in prices of imported consumer and non-consumer items, especially raw material used in manufacturing of industrial products in the past few months.The government has projected an inflation target of 8pc for 2013-14 fiscal year compared to 7.38pc in 2012-13. This target has already been surpassed in the first five months of the current fiscal year.

Core inflation, which is non-food and non-energy, rose 8.5pc in November 2013 from a year ago. It increased by 0.3pc from the previous month, reflecting a slight increase.

To check the core inflation, the State Bank of Pakistan increased the interest rate by 50pbs as part of the last monetary policy to curb inflation.

The impact of rise in the interest rate is yet to be reflected in the core inflation.

In November, total food inflation was at 13pc from a year ago, non-perishable food items witnessed a surge of 8.07pc and perishable items increased 43.14pc in November over last year.

The price of food items, which registered increase include: tomatoes (216.49pc), potatoes (116.90pc), onions (72.83pc), fresh vegetables (31.55pc), wheat (27.35pc), wheat flour (26.48pc), gur (23.11pc), wheat products (21.26pc), tea (16.68pc), beverages (12.59pc), masoor (13.47pc), bakery and confectionary (12.51pc), cereals (12.34pc) and rice (12.05pc).

On the other hand, non-food inflation witnessed an increase of 9.4pc in November 2013 from a year ago. This is mainly because of increase in prices of petroleum products during the month under review.

Non-food items prices that rose in November over last year include: postal services (24.60pc), footwear (18.44pc), cosmetics (16.61pc), woolen readymade garments (12.81pc), text-books (16.02pc), electricity (15.82pc), tailoring (14.87pc), cotton cloth (14.05pc), sewing needle and dry cells (13.70pc), cleaning and laundry (12.33pc), dopatta (12.77pc), readymade garments (12.27pc), doctor fee (11.79pc) and construction wages rates (11.61pc)

PBS statistics showed that the inflation, measured through sensitive price index, was up by 10.66pc in November and inflation in the wholesale manufactured products also increased 8.74pc over November last year.