The national price monitoring committee meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar at the finance ministry on Tuesday.
The finance minister said that price stability throughout the country was always the top priority of the PML-N government. He informed the meeting that the government has taken a number of steps to reform the economy and now there are positive signals of improvement in the economy. He said the IMF in second review acknowledged that economic growth was picking up and the inflation was coming down. Our all macroeconomic indicators are showing positive direction as remittances have increased by 11 percent, revenues by 17 percent, exports by 6 percent and Rupee appreciated by 7 percent and foreign exchange reserve are also improving. The impact of Pak Rupee appreciation will be realised in the prices.
He informed that FBR had reported that appreciation of rupee value had led manufacturers to decrease their prices. These manufacturers include Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd., Manufacturer of PVC-Resin & Caustic Soda by 8 percent, Tufail Chemical Industries Ltd, Manufacturer of various chemicals by 5 percent, Tufail Chemical and Surfactants (Pvt) Ltd by 5 percent, Swat Ceramics Industries (Pvt) Ltd by 5 percent and Indus Motors Company Ltd by 3-4 percent. He urged the provincial governments to take more proactive steps to control the prices and ensure to pass on effect of the rupee appreciation on the prices of essential items. In addition, he also advised the provincial governments to make functional the Consumer Protection Courts and Consumer Protection Society and also create awareness among the common people.
The meeting reviewed the inflationary trend of various indicators including the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Food, Non-Food, Core, Wholesale Price index (WPI), Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) and Index of 28 selected essential items. The NPMC was informed that inflation measured by CPI was recorded at 7.9 percent during February 2014, similarly SPI and WPI also reported at 7.5 percent and 7.6 percent respectively, whereas inflation in Food item is reported at 7.6 percent, Non-Food 8.2 percent and Core at 7.8 percent. The SPI for the week ended on 20th March, 2014 recorded increase of 0.42 percent due to increase in prices of 17 commodities, while prices of 07 items decreased and prices of 29 items remained stable as compared to last week. The meeting noted that inflation (CPI) is declining as it was 10.9 percent in November 2013 and in January and February it has came down to 7.9 percent, which is an indicator that government policies and measures are working to control inflation.
The week ending on 20-03-2014, witnessed decrease in prices of Egg, Gram Pulse, Gur, Masoor Pulse, Firewood, Masoor Pulse and Red Chillies over last week, while the items recorded increase in their prices are tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, onions, LPG, moong pulse and wheat flour, whereas the prices of rice basmati broken, rice irri-6, bread plain medium size, beef, mutton, milk powdered nido, mustard oil, veg. ghee (tin), tea (yellow lable 200 Gm), petrol, and diesel remained unchanged.