Pakistan's inflation climbs to 24.9 pct in July

Pakistan's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 24.9 percent year on year in July as compared to the same month a year ago when it was recorded at 8.4 percent, according to the figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday.

On a month-on-month basis, the CPI increased by 4.3 percent in July as compared to an increase of 6.3 percent in the previous month of June, the PBS figures showed.

The statistics said that high inflation is associated with rising prices of food and non-food items including cooking oil, vegetables, pulses, wheat, rice, milk, electricity charges, motor fuels, construction input items, and motor vehicle accessories.

In a bid to control surging inflation in the country, the government of Pakistan Sunday announced to decrease petrol price by 3.05 rupee per liter. However, economic experts said that the insubstantial cutting down will have little impact on the skyrocketing inflation in the country.

Earlier in July, the State Bank of Pakistan projected inflation to remain high during the ongoing fiscal year of 2023 due to the significant supply shock and said that the inflation rate will sharply decline in the fiscal year of 2024.