Monthly inflation recorded at 2.91pc in July

ISLAMABAD: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) on year-on-year basis during July 2017 witnessed an increase of 2.91 per cent as compared to the same month of the last year.

On month-on-month basis, the inflation was recorded at 0.34 per cent in July 2017 as compared to June 2017, top Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) officials said while presenting data of monthly inflation here Tuesday during a press conference.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) during the months increased by 0.66 percent while the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) witnessed negative growth of 0.45 percent.

It is pertinent to mention that PBS collects the retail and the wholesale prices and computes the CPI and WPI on monthly basis while the SPI is calculated on weekly basis.

The food and non-acholic beverages inflation increased by 0.71 percent in July 2017 compared to July 2016.

Similarly, the CPI for non-perishable food items increased to 1.58%,clothing and footwear 3.89%, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 5.29%, furnishing and household equipment maintenance 2.72%, health 13.36 percent while the CPI for transport increased by 3.18 percent.

In addition, the CPI for communication increased by 1.52%, recreation and culture by 0.21 percent, education by 11.36 percent, restaurant and hotel 5.32 percent while the miscellaneous goods and service increased by 4.82 percent.

On the other hand, thee CPI for perishable food items decreased by 3.77 percent and the SPI for alcoholic beverages and tobacco also decreased 15.93%.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the top items which witnessed increase in prices in July 2017 compared to July 2016 included Lipton tea (26.47%), toilet soap)20.61%), apple (19.51%), ginger (17.33%), iron bar (16.53%) rice basmati (14.53%), potatoes (12.24%), tapal Danedar (10.58%), petrol (10.29%), diesel (9.54%) and unskilled labour wage (8.71%).

The items that witnessed decrease in prices during the month the month of July 2017 included tomatoes (45.10%), Capstan cigarettes (25.74%), mash pulse (24.96%), Morven Gold cigarettes (22.07%), moong pulse (18.01%), garlic (16.71%), masoor pulse (16.43%), gram pulse (16.15%), sugar (15.80%), besan (12.04%), gram whole black (10.18%) onion (7.03%) and wheat flour bag (2.21%).