ISLAMABAD: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation surged to 9.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis in March 2019, as per the statistics of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Statistics reveal that inflation increased by 1.4pc in March 2019 as compared to an increase of 0.6pc in Feb 2019 and an increase of 0.3pc in March 2018.
The prices of food items that witnessed an increase on a month-on-month basis included onions (39.28pc), fresh vegetables (24.43pc), tomatoes (18.83pc), chicken (15.88pc), pulse moong (12.68pc), fresh fruits (12.52pc), gur (2.88pc), sugar (2.74pc), beans (1.23pc), fish (1.18pc), spices (0.91pc), pulse gram (0.60pc), vegetable ghee (0.58pc), rice (0.41pc), pulse masoor (0.31pc), bakery & confectionary (0.31pc), cigarettes (0.27pc), wheat flour (0.20pc), cooking oil (0.18pc), tea (0.17pc), milk fresh (0.17pc) and wheat (0.16pc).
On the other hand, food items that witnessed a decrease included eggs (6.32pc), potatoes (5.00pc), betel leaves & nuts (2.09pc), gram whole (0.70pc) and wheat (0.41pc).
A MoM increase was also witnessed in non-food items including text book (3.95pc), cotton cloth (2.30pc), medical equipment (2.24pc), motor fuel (1.54pc), kerosene oil (1.51pc), household servant (1.35pc), plastic products (1.32pc), stationery (1.18pc), drugs and medicines (1.16pc), construction wage rates (1.16pc), education (1.00pc), transport services (0.97pc), personal equipment (0.96pc), construction input items (0.79pc) and motor vehicle (0.67pc).
On a year-on-year basis, food items increased by up to 315.3pc, as the price of tomatoes increased 315.30pc, fresh vegetables 28.18pc, pulse moong 22.69pc, sugar 18.20pc, spices 17.66pc, gur 17.18pc, onions 15.85pc, honey 15.23pc, cigarettes 14.73pc, meat 13.33pc, dry fruits 11.75pc, beans 10.09pc, pulse gram 9.87pc, eggs 8.30pc, sweet meat 8.28pc, milk powder 8.07pc, fish 8.02pc, tea 7.87pc, condiments 7.43pc, vegetable ghee 7.18pc and rice 5.11pc.
On the other hand, prices of products that registered a decrease included betel leaves & nuts (37.02pc), potatoes (15.57pc), gram whole (5.15pc), fresh fruits (1.38pc) and chicken (1.20pc).
Core inflation measured by non-food non-energy CPI (Core NFNE) increased by 8.5pc on YoY basis in March 2019 as compared to an increase of 8.8pc in the previous month and 5.8pc in March 2018.
On MoM basis, it increased by 0.5pc in March 2019 as compared to an increase of 0.2pc in the previous month, and an increase of 0.7pc in the corresponding month of last year.
Core inflation, measured by 20pc weighted trimmed mean CPI (Core Trimmed) increased by 7.9pc on a YoY basis in March 2019 as compared to 7.7pc in the previous month and by 4.1pc in March 2018.
On MoM basis, it increased by 0.4pc in March 2019 as compared to an increase of 0.2pc in the previous month and an increase of 0.2pc in the corresponding month of last year.
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