Although the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows inflation to have eased down to a single-digit at 7.7 percent, Islamabad stands out as the most expensive city in the country where the residents had to purchase daily-use essentials at the highest prices last month.
Income group-wise, those earning over Rs 35,000 per month bore the highest inflation according to the CPI basket for the food group. While those falling in the lowest income-group category, earning up to Rs 8,000 monthly, faced the lowest rate of price hike.
A city-wise data of the central bank for October revealed that the CPI inflation was recorded the highest, at eight percent, in the federal capital as well as Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, during the month under review. Inflation in Peshawar was recorded at 5.3 percent, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. The prices of consumer items in Karachi and Lahore remained at par at 7.5 percent against 11.0 and 8.3 percent, respectively, during the same month in 2011.
Inflation in Islamabad and Quetta, however, saw a remarkable decline of 1.5 and 2.4 percent, respectively, compared to October the previous year when the price hike in these cities stood at 9.5 and 10.4 percent, respectively.
A monthly account shows that change in inflation in October 2012, as compared to the September 2012, was recorded at 0.0 percent, 0.6 percent, -0.1 percent, 0.0 percent and 1.0 percent. The overall yearly CPI inflation stood at 7.7 percent against the previous year’s 11.0 percent, registering an encouraging contraction of 3.3 percent YoY.
“(The) CPI inflation on year-on-year basis in federal and provincial capitals of Pakistan showed a mix trend during October,” said the State Bank in its monthly Inflation Monitor. The inflation, on month-on-month (MoM) basis, was recorded at 0.4 percent compared to 0.8 percent in the previous month and 1.4 percent in the corresponding month of 2011. Seasonally adjusted month-on-month CPI inflation decreased to 0.2 percent in October 2012 as compared to 0.7 percent in the previous month. The core inflation (trimmed) YoY decreased to 9.7 percent compared to 10.4 percent in the previous month and it was 11.7 percent in the corresponding month of last year. MoM, the core inflation increased to 0.7 percent in October as compared to 0.5 percent in the previous month. It was 1.0 percent in the corresponding month of last year.
8% inflation makes Islamabad costliest city of country
