Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation in Pakistan rose to a record 38 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in May 2023, the highest since July 1965, largely driven by food. The increase in the prices of beverages continued to defy the restrictions. .
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed that CPI-based inflation reached 36.4 percent in April 2023, compared to an increase of 1.6 percent in the month of May.
“This reading takes average inflation to 29.2% for 11MFY23 from 11.3% in 11MFY22,” brokerage Arif Habib Ltd noted in a report.
Urban food inflation increased by 48.1 percent in May 2023 compared to May 2022, while rural areas saw a year-on-year increase in consumer prices of 52.4 percent.
Khurram Shehzad, CEO of Alpha Beta Core, said that CPI inflation in Pakistan in May 2023 reached 38 percent as against 36 percent in April.
“May 2023 inflation is the highest monthly CPI recorded since 1965 (barring a few years due to unavailability of monthly records),” Shahzad told The News.
The analyst noted that the “main culprit” of rising inflation is food.
The latest 38% increase tops that of Sri Lanka, which posted annual inflation of 25.2% in May.
Inflation has been on the rise since earlier this year when the government took painful steps to unlock stalled funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a fiscal adjustment. which have not yet been paid.
