By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Consumer price inflation slowed to 23.8 percent in November as aggressive policy tightening dampened demand, official data showed on Thursday.
Prices were up 0.8 percent in November from the previous month, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistic said in a statement.
Core inflation for urban and rural areas measured by non-food, non-energy increased to 14.6 percent and 18.5 percent respectively in November, year-on-year.
Food inflation quickened 31.16 percent year-on-year, while transport prices rose 44.22 percent. Clothing and footwear prices jumped 18.58 percent and housing, water and electricity costs rose at 9.89 percent.
Analyst Fahad Rauf at Ismail Iqbal Securities said although headline inflation softened, core inflation continued to surge on a monthly basis, rising by more than 1 percent for a sixth consecutive month.
“Core inflation continues to be the central bank’s focus and will be critical in policy decisions.”
He said consumer prices to remain at current levels over the next few months and inflation to average 23.5 percent, slightly higher than the central bank’s range of 21 percent-23 percent, which was revised upward last week.
The resumed bank resumed its rate hikes last month to prevent faster-than-anticipated inflation from spiraling out of control.
State Bank of Pakistan has delivered 625 basis points of rate hikes this year. On November 25, the central bank unexpectedly raised its key policy rate by 100 basis points to 16 percent to ensure high inflation does not get entrenched.
According to the CPI bulletin, on a month-on-month basis, the inflation increased by 0.8 percent in November as compared to an increase of 4.7 percent in the previous month and an increase of 3.0 percent in November 2021.
Similarly, another indicator of inflation, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), also eased to 27.7 percent in November 2022 against an increase of 32.6 percent in October 2022 and an increase of 27 percent in November 2021.
The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) also increased year on year to 27.1 percent in the month under review as compared to an increase of 24 percent last month and 18.1 percent in November 2021.
Urban inflation in November eased to 21.6 percent yearly as compared to 24.6 percent in October and 12 percent in November 2022. The rural CPI also reduced to 27.2 percent on a year-on-year basis in November 2022 as compared to an increase of 29.5 percent in the previous month and 10.9 percent in Nov 2021.
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