Islamabad: Pakistan's inflation measured by the consumer price index (CPI) rose to a historic high of 36.4 percent, data from the statistics bureau said on Tuesday, as the country reels from a surge in fuel and energy prices.
Inflation in Pakistan rose to 35.4 percent on a year-on-year basis in March while food inflation in urban centers of the country jumped to 47.1 percent in February.
Desperate to avoid an acute balance of payments crisis as it faces rising external debt and dwindling foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan is actively trying to revive a stalled $6.5 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). One of the IMF’s foremost conditions to unlock the bailout program was to scrap subsidies and raise the prices of fuel and energy.
In its monthly report, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said prices increased by 2.4 percent in the country this month.
“On a month-on-month basis, it [CPI inflation] increased to 2.4 percent in April 2023 as compared to an increase of 3.7 percent in the previous month and an increase of 1.6 percent in April 2022,” the PBS said.
Food inflation for April 2023 was clocked in at 49.5 percent (an average of rural and urban areas) versus 16.7 percent recorded in April 2022.
The data reflects Pakistan’s inflation has outpaced price gains in Sri Lanka, which has eased to 35.3 percent in April as its economy shows signs of recovery.
Apart from the IMF’s tough conditionalities, price gains in Pakistan have been driven largely due to Pakistan’s weak currency, which has depreciated by 20 percent against the US dollar, causing imports to become costlier.
