Amid former prime minister Imran Khan’s political contest with the army and PM Shehbaz Sharif’s government, Pakistan witnessed a staggering annual inflation rate of 37.97 percent in May, HT reported citing official data.
The neighboring country is not only grappling with significant political and economic crises, but also struggling with mounting external debts, declining foreign exchange reserves, and a weakened local currency.
The measurement of inflation is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which comprises a basket of products and services. This basket is divided into 12 major components with varying weights.
According to data released by the Bureau of Statistics, which tracks price hikes, the categories with the highest year-on-year increases were alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 123.96 percent, recreation and culture at 72.17 percent, and transport at 52.92 percent.
In the food group, certain items experienced significant price increases in May compared to the previous year. These items include tea, wheat flour, potatoes, wheat, rice and eggs. In the non-food category, prices of stationery, textbooks, motor fuels, detergents, matchboxes and washing soaps witnessed the highest increases.
It is noteworthy that the month of April had previously recorded the highest-ever year-on-year inflation at 36.4 percent. With the latest rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the average inflation rate for the fiscal year from July to May has reached 29.16 percent, compared to 11.29 percent in the previous year.
Notably, the people of Pakistan have been experiencing the severe impact of bone-crushing inflation since the beginning of this year, following the implementation of painful measures by the government of PM Shehbaz Sharif.
These measures were undertaken as part of the fiscal adjustments required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to revive a stalled USD 6.5 billion aid package.
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