Arif Habib Limited data shows that Pakistan’s annual inflation hit a 30-year high of 27.55% in January, up from 24.5% in the previous month.
The country has experienced a significant increase in the prices of food and transportation for the past nine months.
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Arif Habib Limited tweeted that the current Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 27.55% is the highest recorded since May 1975 (27.77%), and represents a significant increase from January 2022’s inflation rate of 13%.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported that year-on-year inflation in urban and rural areas rose to 24.38% and 32.26%, respectively.
Inflation increased 2.9pc on a monthly basis, PBS data showed.
The rapid inflation was largely due to double-digit increases in almost all sub-indices, with food and transportation prices seeing the sharpest spikes.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in higher than the government’s predicted 26%, which was already more than double the budgeted target of 11.5%.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s Monthly Economic Update & Outlook, the year-on-year Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation for January is expected to fall within the range of 24-26% due to recent political and economic uncertainties driving upward inflationary expectations.
The Ministry of Finance made an upward revision to its inflation forecast for the year, increasing it to 24-26% from the previous estimate of 21-23% in December.
