CPI based inflation rises 4.94pc in March

ISLAMABAD: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation witnessed an increase of 4.94 per cent during March 2017 as compared to the same month during the last year.

On month-on-month basis, the inflation was recorded at 0.84 per cent in March 2017 as compared to February 2017, Chief Statistician Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Asif Bajwa presenting data of monthly inflation figures here during a press conference said.

According to the data, average CPI based inflation during first nine months of the current fiscal year (July-March) increased by 4.01 per cent as compared to the same period of previous year.

The PBS collects the retail and the wholesale prices and computes the CPI and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) on monthly basis while the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) is calculated on weekly basis.

In March 2017, the WPI increased by 0.84 percent while SPI also increased by 1.8 percent.

The non food and non energy core inflation during March 2017 was observed at 5.3 percent as compared to March 2016, during which it was recorded at 3.8 percent as compared to March 2015.

The trimmed core inflation has been observed at 4.5 percent in March 2017 compared to March 2016.

On year-on-year basis, the top ten items that witnessed increase in prices on in March 2017 as compared to the same month of the last year included tomatoes 68.43%, chillies green 36.22%, chicken 21.6%, onion 18.06%, potatoes 15.48%, Apple 12.69%, bananas 10.65%, tea 8.04%, iron bars 2.99%, petrol 2.48% and diesel 1.89%.

The top ten items that witnessed decrease in prices in March 2017 as compared to February 2017 included egg farms 21.34%, peas 18.52%, cucumber 15.12%, pulse gram 8.06%, gram whole black 7.69%, pulse masoor whole 5.05%, gas cylinder 4.82%, gram flour 4.5%, sugar refined 4.39% and pulse masoor washed 3.78%.

On year-on-year basis, the top items which recorded increase in their average prices in March 2017 as compared to March 2016 included tomatoes 128.17%, potatoes 49.92%, dettol medium 44.27%, LPG 23.86%, chicken 18.92%, green chillies 16.64%, petrol 16.3%, tea 16.14%, toilet soap 15.97%, diesel 15.07%, iron bars 14.31% and pulse gram 10%.

The items that witnessed decrease in prices on yearly basis, included pulse mash 19.96%, onion 17.6%, pulse moong 17.22%, pulse masoor 9.09%, pulse masoor washed 8.93% and tyre motor cycle 5.66%.