Fawad anticipates further inflation decline in Pakistan as oil prices tank

• Minister says the decline in global oil prices that will allow the government to ‘bottle the inflation genie.’
• Oil prices tanked over 8 percent on Friday as the coronavirus outbreak slows the global economy and hurts energy demand.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain anticipates a further decline in the rate of inflation in the ongoing month of March, amid the decline in oil prices as demand slowdown due to Coronavorus epidemic.

“Inflation rate has dropped for the second consecutive month; inflation is expected to decline further in March,” said the minister in a tweet post. Fawad added that a decline in inflation would be on the back of a decline in global oil prices that will allow the government to ‘bottle the inflation genie.’

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— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) March 7, 2020

The statement comes after Pakistan Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) declined by 1.04 percent in the month of February 2020 as compared to January 2020. As per the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), for the month of February 2020, the rate of inflation in February on a yearly basis stood at 12.4pc.

It may be mentioned here that oil prices tanked over 8 percent on Friday and hit their lowest since mid-2017 after Russia balked at OPEC’s proposed steep production cuts to stabilize prices as the coronavirus outbreak slows the global economy and hurts energy demand.