Consumer Price Index declines to 11.56pc

The change of base for calculating inflation based upon the consumer price index (CPI) results in a sudden fall of CPI to 11.56 per cent on year on year basis in August 2011 much less than the reported CPI of 13.8 per cent in July 2011.
The decline is primarily attributed to high base effect of last year kicking in due to index rising on account of floods last year. Moreover the redistribution of weights away from Foods and Beverages in the newly composed CPI basket also caused the numbers to decline, said Secretary Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) Asif Bajwa while addressing a press conference here Tuesday.
According to FBS, during August 2011, the trimmed core inflation has been observed as 12.5 per cent while it was 10.9 during August 2010. Some of new items that have been included in new CPI weight basket are prices of cosmetics, hosiery items, garments, tailor’s charges, doctors clinic fee, medicinal test charges and fish, betel leaves, nuts and even household servant salary has been included in new index list.
However, Month on Month basis, inflation in August stood higher at 1.40 per cent on account of the Ramadan factor. The average CPI rate of first two month of current fiscal is estimated at 11.99 per cent. The push in inflation was based on hike in prices of fruits, vegetables, petroleum products, LPG, fresh milk, cooking oil, medicines, electricity and other grocery items.
The Statistics Bureau collects the retail and the wholesale prices and computes the Consumers Price Index (CPI), Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Sensitive Price Index SPI. In August the average CPI, WPI and SPI increased by 1.40 per cent, 0.55 per cent and 0.83 per cent over July 2011 respectively.
When compared to last year, the CPI, SPI and WPI of August have registered an increase of 11.56 per cent, 11.56 per cent and 18.68 per cent respectively.
Statistics released by the FBS indicates that the doctors fee have increased by 4.13 percent, medical test fee increased by 2.39 per cent and the prices of medicinal equipments increased by 1.52 per cent during August this year.
During August, the cost of motor fuel has been raised by 4.02 per cent, spare parts prices went up by 2.10 per cent, mechanic fee increased by 0.97 per cent while government has also raised tax on motor vehicles by 1.45 per cent.
The price of cosmetics also increased by 1.18 per cent, price of readymade garments went up by 1.69 per cent, cotton cloth by 1.47 per cent, woolen cloth by 1.27 per cent and tailors have increased their charges by 1.24 per cent.
Gas prices increased by 13.55 per cent, kerosene oil and fire wood price spiraled by 2.25 per cent. The cost of items used in construction of houses also mildly increased by 1.48 percent. The charges of a household servant also registered an raise of 5.04 per cent during August while the prices of household textile items increased by 2.36 per cent, furniture by 1.53 per cent, utensils by 1.41 per cent and washing soap and detergent prices went up by 1.15 per cent.
In food items, the price of onions registered an increase of 32.11 per cent during the month of August. Prices of chicken increased by 6 per cent, gram whole by 6.04 per cent, fresh milk by 1.13 per cent, fresh fruits by 5.79 per cent, sugar by 5.53 per cent, dry fruits by 4.21 per cent, rice by 2.36 per cent, meat by 2.04 per cent, beans by 1.56 per cent, pulse gram by 1.44 per cent, fish by -0.95 per cent and the price of eggs went up by 1.20 per cent during last month. In August, the price of tomatoes declined by 19.36 per cent, potatoes by 1.54 per cent and pulse mash by 1.47 per cent.