AGL 38.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-0.81%)
AIRLINK 136.69 Decreased By ▼ -4.71 (-3.33%)
BOP 5.42 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-3.9%)
CNERGY 3.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-1.03%)
DCL 7.59 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.4%)
DFML 46.05 Decreased By ▼ -1.35 (-2.85%)
DGKC 80.35 Increased By ▲ 0.60 (0.75%)
FCCL 28.03 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (2.15%)
FFBL 55.21 Increased By ▲ 0.36 (0.66%)
FFL 8.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.23%)
HUBC 112.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.86 (-0.76%)
HUMNL 12.33 Increased By ▲ 1.13 (10.09%)
KEL 3.85 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-3.51%)
KOSM 8.07 Decreased By ▼ -0.47 (-5.5%)
MLCF 35.11 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.31%)
NBP 66.00 Increased By ▲ 2.20 (3.45%)
OGDC 171.16 Increased By ▲ 1.76 (1.04%)
PAEL 25.18 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PIBTL 6.20 Increased By ▲ 0.31 (5.26%)
PPL 132.85 Increased By ▲ 7.10 (5.65%)
PRL 24.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.39 (-1.57%)
PTC 14.52 Increased By ▲ 1.26 (9.5%)
SEARL 58.95 Increased By ▲ 1.50 (2.61%)
TELE 7.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.42%)
TOMCL 35.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TPLP 8.09 Increased By ▲ 0.64 (8.59%)
TREET 14.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.14%)
TRG 45.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.95 (-2.04%)
UNITY 25.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.73%)
WTL 1.20 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,084 Decreased By -6.9 (-0.08%)
BR30 27,631 Increased By 252.1 (0.92%)
KSE100 85,453 Decreased By -216.1 (-0.25%)
KSE30 27,149 Decreased By -67.3 (-0.25%)
Markets

Inflation in Pakistan could reach new heights in May: report

  • JS Global Securities says it expects datapoint to clock in at record-high of 37.27%
  • Attributes this to higher increase in food prices
Published May 22, 2023
Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters

Inflation in Pakistan is likely to hit fresh peaks, and is projected to reach over 37% year-on-year (YoY) in May against 36.4% recorded in April, JS Global Securities, a brokerage house, said in a report on Monday.

“We expect the datapoint to clock in at a record-high of 37.27%, as current workings suggest another sequential increase of 1.07% month-on-month,” said JS Global.

“This would take 11MFY23E headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) to 29.03%,” it added.

The brokerage house was of the view that the rise in inflation is attributed to a higher increase in food prices, which is 30% of the CPI basket.

“We expect food inflation to clock in at 47.99% YoY this month, with a sequential increase of 0.81% MoM, finally pacing down from its recent run rate of ~4.5% MoM since the past four months,” it said.

It added that the recent decline in POL product prices is not expected to reflect in May’s readings, which is expected to be the peak for inflation readings.

After May "we expect the YoY trend to soften on account of base affect from June,” it said.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is currently scheduled to meet on June 12, 2023.

CPI-based inflation clocked in at a record high of 36.4% on a year-on-year basis in April 2023 compared to an increase of 35.4% in the previous month and 13.4% in April 2022, as per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

“This is the highest year-on-year inflation since the available data i.e. July 1965,” Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited, told Business Recorder, back then.

High inflation is just one of the issues currently putting Pakistan’s economy in distress.

The country’s economy has continued to bear the burden of mounting debt and falling foreign exchange reserves. Talks of default gathered steam again before Finance Minister Ishaq Dar moved to pacify markets.

The worsening economic situation has also kept the currency market under pressure for months.

Comments

Comments are closed.

Tulukan Mairandi May 22, 2023 04:50pm
32% is an understatement. With looming defaut and government's indiscriminate printing of PKR, it could likely spiral into hyperinflation with hundreds of percent inflation rate
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Arfan qasim May 22, 2023 06:23pm
As, if would effect members of the government. Their household budgets are uneffected, it is the bottom and middle of the ladder ;that get grinded.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Jahangir May 22, 2023 06:26pm
Many people are surviving on one meal a day! And there is no economic index to describe that!
thumb_up Recommended (0)
KU May 22, 2023 09:20pm
No one cares anymore, poor as well as middle-class people are cutting down on their daily food consumption, while the government has better things to do than worry about these meanderings.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
MR Shahzad Jalil Akhtar May 23, 2023 01:43am
Past or current both these Governments are not bothered nor interested to revive or hold on to the economic affairs . They are busy in getting clean chit and other unimportant matters.Its always the middle class who suffers the most.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
KhanRA May 23, 2023 06:27am
Ishaq dar has really done wonders for this country
thumb_up Recommended (0)