KARACHI: President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, Chairman of the National Business Group Pakistan and Chairman of the FPCCI Policy Advisory Board, Mian Zahid Hussain has urged the government to publish data on available wheat stocks and deliveries to markets online, tighten monitoring against hoarding, and track flour prices and availability district by district.
Supplies should be delivered promptly wherever shortages emerge.
He said the State Bank had raised the policy rate by 50 basis points to contain inflation, but higher interest rates also increased borrowing costs for businesses.
Lasting price stability required action against food hoarding, better distribution and lower energy costs to protect purchasing power and keep industry operating.
He welcomed the easing of annual inflation from 10.3 percent in September to 9.6 percent in October 2026, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
He cautioned, however, that consumer prices rose a further 1.1 percent compared with September. Inflation averaged 10.05 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year, against 4.79 percent in the corresponding period last year.
Rising prices of wheat flour, petroleum products and other essentials continued to erode the purchasing power of households with limited incomes.
Mian Zahid Hussain said consumer prices had risen by 1.7 percent month-on-month in October 2025, compared with 1.1 percent in October 2026.
This helped bring down the annual inflation rate even as prices continued to rise. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, eased from 8.6 to 7.8 percent in urban areas and from 8.1 to 7.1 percent in rural areas.
However, annual inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator rose from 8.4 to 8.7 percent, reflecting continued pressure on the cost of everyday essentials for salaried and low-income households.
Mian Zahid Hussain said food and beverage prices rose 2.26 percent in October, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the overall monthly increase in consumer prices.
Wheat flour prices increased by 9.41 percent in rural areas and 7.54 percent in urban areas, while chicken prices rose by 16.91 percent and 19.38 percent, respectively.
Monthly inflation stood at 1.5 percent in rural areas, compared with 0.8 percent in cities. As food accounts for a larger share of rural household spending, increases in the prices of flour and other staples put greater pressure on rural budgets.
Mian Zahid Hussain said monthly wholesale inflation slowed from 1.9 to 0.9 percent, while annual wholesale inflation rose from 13.3 to 13.8 percent. Compared with October last year, wholesale prices of furnace oil, diesel and wheat increased by 74.55 percent, 55.45 percent and 39.72 percent, respectively, while consumer transport prices were 28.61 percent higher.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026