ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Housewives may know better but official figures claim that in December food items cost less in Islamabad than in Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi and Multan recorded the highest food inflation of 16.8 per cent in that month while in Islamabad it stood at 10.5 per cent, according to official statistics.

At the national level, the year-on-year food inflation was stated to be 12.7 per cent and the general inflation at 8.8 per cent.

Naturally, the inflation hit the citizens with the least income the worst. For people earning less than Rs3,000 per month in Rawalpindi, the 16.8 per cent food inflation in effect meant 18.3 per cent.

Prices of onions, tomatoes, Besan, pulses, milk, wheat flour, meat, vegetable ghee, gur and bakery items recorded highest rise in December.

Rawalpindi District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas attributed the rise to greater demand. “But the prices of main commodities have come down this month,” he told Dawn.

Meat prices stabilised due to “massive import of mutton” from China, the Nazim said, assuring that the Chinese exporters have certified that it was halal meat.

In a campaign to curb profiteering, the district government has fined shopkeepers a total of Rs200,000 and issued warnings to 300 of them in the past two weeks, he added.

Of the 35 cities surveyed to calculate food inflation in the country, 23 were found to have more than the average inflation of 8.8 per cent.

Faisalabad recorded the lowest inflation of 7 per cent.