KARACHI: The pace of increase in prices picked up again in November 2017 and the overall inflation rate advanced 4 per cent following the rise in rates of both food and non-food items, said Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) here on Tuesday.
Measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the inflation had stood at 3.8 per cent a month earlier, according to the national data collecting agency.
Food inflation picked up by 2.4 per cent whereas non-food inflation rose 5.1 per cent. Prices of non-food items, which had largely remained stable earlier except for the cost of health and education, recorded the increase after the government started enhancing petroleum product prices.
The average inflation rate for the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year rose 3.6 per cent, but it was lower than the pace recorded in the same period of previous year.
On a year-on-year basis, the non-food non-energy inflation, called core inflation, hit a three-month high at 5.5 per cent in November. Earlier in August this year, the core inflation had stood at 5.5 per cent.
Among 89 commodity groups in the CPI, the core inflation covers price movements in 43 goods. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) monitors core inflation while formulating its monetary policy.
Core inflation is gradually going up due to a surge in the cost of health, education, transport and housing. The cost of health services went up about 10 per cent in November than a year ago. Education cost increased 12.4 per cent.
