ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s consumer price index (CPI) jumped 29.2 percent in November on a year-on-year basis, the country’s statistics bureau said on Friday, with analysts attributing monthly increase in prices to a recent hike in gas tariff. 

The headline inflation was recorded at 26.8 percent in October and 23.8 percent in November last year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). 

Prices went up by 2.7 percent in November as compared to a 1 percent increase in the month before and a rise of 0.8 percent in November 2022. 

Financial analysts say the increase in inflation figures for the month of November was “in line with the expectations” after the gas price hike. 

“The inflation for the month of November is in line with the expectations. The major impact has come from the gas tariff hike,” Samiullah Tariq, a director at the Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company, to Arab News. 

“Going forward we hope that the inflation would ease off.” 

In late October, Pakistan announced a sharp increase in the price of natural gas for most households and industries ahead of the cash-strapped country’s first review of a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout it entered in July. 

While the government did not increase the tariff for the protected category (57 percent of the domestic consumers), it increased the fixed monthly charge from Rs10 to Rs400 for this category. 

The price of gas was set at Rs2,100/mmbtu for export process industry, Rs2,400/mmbtu for export captive industry, Rs2,200/mmbtu for non-export process industry, Rs2,500/mmbtu for non-export captive industry, and Rs3,600/mmbtu for the CNG sector. 

In November, Pakistan cleared the first review of the nine-month standby arrangement, paving the way for Islamabad to receive a second tranche of around $700 million from the lender. 

Among the food items that recorded highest increase in November prices were tomatoes (60.42 percent), potatoes (14.92 percent), tea (12.95 percent), onions (12.32 percent), dry fruits (7.91 percent), fish (7.75 percent), eggs (7.15 percent) and fresh vegetables (4.47 percent), according to the PBS. 

Non-food items whose prices recorded the highest increased included gas charges (280.55 percent), woolen readymade garments (8.16 percent), dental services (5.19 percent), transport services (5.11 percent) and solid fuel (3.52 percent). 

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani policeman was killed when militants attacked a polio vaccination team on Friday, police said, the latest casualty in the country’s long campaign against the crippling disease. 

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic and vaccination teams are frequently targeted by militants. 

The latest incident occurred in Malik Din Khel, part of the former tribal border region that was once a haven for Taliban militants. 

“Two gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on policemen guarding a two-member polio vaccination team,” district police chief Saleem Khan Kulachi told AFP. 

“One policeman died at the scene while another sustained a minor injury,” he said. 

One of the gunmen was shot dead by police. 

Local police official Zahir Ahmed Afridi also confirmed the details, adding that the health care workers were unhurt. 

Pakistan initiated a week-long nationwide polio vaccination campaign on Monday, with the goal of inoculating more than 44 million children across much of the country. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban, have killed scores of polio vaccination workers and their security escorts in the past. 

Islamist opposition to inoculation grew after the US Central Intelligence Agency organized a fake vaccination drive to help track down Al-Qaeda’s former leader Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. 

Pakistan has reported five cases of polio this year, while 20 were reported last year, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.