Yearly inflation 12.3pc up in October: PBS

ISLAMABAD: The year-on-year inflation increased by 12.3 percent in the month of October as compared to an increase of 12 percent in September and 15.1 percent in October 2019, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said in its report.
According to the PBS data, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation has been recorded at 8.86 percent in first four months (July to October) of the current fiscal year.
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), which gauges rates of kitchen items on a weekly basis, increased by 12.43 per cent. Similarly, the wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation enhanced by 3.98 per cent in the above stated period.
In urban areas, the food items having hike in price during October 2020 included: tomatoes (48.36 per cent), onions (39.07 per cent), chicken (26.62 per cent), eggs (23.81 per cent), wheat (8.39 per cent), wheat products (8.07 per cent), sugar (4.58 per cent), wheat flour (4.1 per cent), besan (2.89 per cent), pulse moong (1.69 per cent), rice (1.45 per cent), pulse mash (1.26 per cent), ready-made food (0.98 per cent), gram whole (0.85 per cent), pulse masoor (0.85 per cent), potatoes (0.82 per cent), pulse gram (0.81 per cent) and butter (0.78 per cent).
Meanwhile, in urban areas, some commodities prices showed decline such as fresh vegetables (6.36 per cent), fresh fruits (3.31 per cent) and condiments and spices (2.39 per cent).
The CPI inflation in urban areas increased by 7.3% on a year-on-year basis in October 2020 as compared to an increase of 7.7% in September and 10.9% in October 2019, according to the PBS data.
Meanwhile, inflation in rural areas increased by 11.3 percent on a year-on-year basis in October 2020 as compared to an increase of 11.1% in the previous month and 11.3% in October 2019.
The wholesale price index (WPI) inflation on year to year basis increased by 5.1% in October 2020 as compared to an increase of 4.3% in September and an increase of 13.3% in October 2019.
Inflation is being termed one of the major challenges for the government, as prices of basic commodities are skyrocketing.
The government is taking all possible measures to control it, officials said. The measures to ensure sufficient supply of food items, it is expected that inflation will remain under control. – TLTP