Pakistan’s annual consumer inflation remained elevated at 29.4 per cent year-on-year in June but eased sharply from a record high 38pc in May largely helped by a high base effect, the statistics bureau and a brokerage house said on Monday.
The data came after the country, facing a deep economic crisis, secured a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday.
Month-on-month inflation declined to -0.3pc in June, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.
The bureau’s data showed that the annual increase in consumer prices in June was the lowest since January.
Average inflation in the 2022-23 fiscal year (July-June) came in at 29.18pc compared to 12.15pc in the previous year, it said.
The data also said that inflation in urban and rural areas increased to 27.34pc and 32.41pc year-on-year, respectively.
Index-wise increase in inflation YoY:
- Alcoholic beverages and tobacco: 109.53pc
- Recreation and culture: 67.97pc
- Furnishing and household equipment maintenance: 41.65pc
- Miscellaneous goods and services: 40.12pc
- Restaurants and hotels: 36.37pc
- Perishable food items: 24.82pc
- Clothing and footwear: 20.96pc
- Transport: 20.30pc
- Health: 19.13pc
- Housing and utilities: 11.64pc
- Education: 8.56pc
- Communication: 6.81pc
“This decline can be attributed mainly to high base effect and decline in food and domestic petroleum products’ prices,” said Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited Securities.
“For FY24, we expect inflation to clock in at 20.6pc, primarily due to base impact and relatively eased-off commodity prices tagged with expected stabilization in the currency,” he said.
The IMF rescue package has come as a huge relief for cash-starved Pakistan, which has been facing an acute balance of payment crisis, threatening a debt default.
A string of painful policy and fiscal adjustments Islamabad made to secure the IMF slowed down the economy and fuelled the record inflation in May.
