ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of March 2023 clocked in at 35.4 percent on year-on-year basis (YoY), the highest annual inflation since July 1965.
The average inflation of first nine months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-23 recorded at 27.3 percent as compared to 10.8 percent during the same period last year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
CPI for the month of Mar’23 clocked in at 35.4% YoY (+3.7% MoM). This is the highest YoY inflation since the available data i.e. July 1965. This takes 9MFY23 average inflation to 27.3% compared to 10.8% in 9MFY22.@PBSofficialpak @StateBank_Pak#Inflation #Pakistan #Economy #AHL pic.twitter.com/JaXWJUP8IW
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The statistics released by the PBS stated that the CPI increased to 35.4 percent on YoY basis in March 2023 as compared to an increase of 31.5% in the previous month and 12.7 percent in March 2022.
Whereas on month-on-month (MoM) basis, it increased to 3.7 percent in March 2023 as compared to an increase of 4.3 percent in the previous month and an increase of 0.8 percent in March 2022.
The urban and rural inflation increased to 33.0 and 38.9 percent respectively on year-on-year basis in March 2023.
The Monthly Economic Update & Outlook for March 2023 projected that the inflation is expected to stay at elevated level owing to market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gap of essential items, exchange rate depreciation and recent upward adjustment of administered prices of petrol and Diesel.
It stated that due to the lagged effect of floods, the production losses especially of major agriculture crops has not yet been fully recovered. Consequently, the shortage of essential items has emerged and persisted.
It projected that the inflation may further jack up as a result of second round effect.
