Headline inflation increased by 3.19 percent in December 2015 over the same period of last fiscal year, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Chief Statistician PBS Asif Bajwa launched the CPI at a news conference here Friday and maintained that all arrangements for population census have been finalised and census officers have been appointed in all the provinces, AJK, G-B and FATA. He further stated that Finance Ministry would release the second tranche of Rs 1 billion to the PBS next week for conducting population census.
According to PBS, the cost of food & non-alcoholic beverages was up by 1.44 percent in December 2015 as compared to the same month a year ago, and non-perishable food items 1.22 percent, perishable food items 2.81 percent. The other major commodities which showed increase during the period under review included alcoholic beverages & tobacco by 25.51 percent, clothing & footwear by 4.57 percent, housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels by 4.97 percent, furnishing & household equipment maintenance by 3.82 percent, health by 2.56 percent, communication by 0.33 percent, recreation & culture by 2.14 percent, education by 8.78 percent, restaurant & hotel by 4.57 percent, and miscellaneous goods & services by 2.51 percent.
However, the cost of transport declined by 4.04 per cent in December 2015 as compared to the corresponding month of last fiscal year. Main contributors to month-on-month and year-on-year are given below: Month-on-month, the food items, which increased included cigarettes (7.24percent), pulse mash (6.08percent), eggs (3.74percent), chicken (2.91percent), tea (2.16percent), wheat & betel leaves (1.91percent each), gram whole (1.90percent), dry fruits (1.44percent) and besan (1.32percent).
Those items which decreased included tomatoes (27.42percent), vegetables (23.92percent), onions (16.55percent), potatoes (15.42percent), sugar (5.08percent), gur (4.60percent), fresh fruits (3.84percent) and rice (1.07percent). Among non-food items cost of woollen readymade garments increased by (2.41percent), postal services by (2.11percent), blades by (2.04percent), cosmetics by (1.74percent) and cleaning & laundry by (1.05percent).
During the month of December 2015 over December 2014, the trimmed core inflation has been observed as 2.7percent while it was 5.2percent during December 2014 over December 2013. The non-food & non-energy core inflation has been observed as 4.1percent during the month of December 2015 over December 2014 while it was 6.7percent during December 2014 over December 2013.
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