KARACHI – As political uncertainty continues to rattle the country, the statistics bureau said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s consumer inflation rose in October to 26.6 percent from a year earlier, with prices showing a rise of 4.7 percent from the previous month.
In September, Pakistan’s consumer price index rose 23.2 percent on year, slowing from a decades-high 27.3 percent in August.
The rise in consumer prices in October from last month was boosted mainly by electricity and food prices, the bureau said in a statement. The higher CPI from October last year was due to the rising costs of food and fuel.
High inflation has put a severe strain on Pakistan’s economy, which is reeling from falling foreign exchange reserves, a depreciating and unstable currency, as well as a widening current account deficit.
Foreign exchange reserves with the central bank stand at $7.4 billion, barely enough to cover a month’s imports.
In September, the State Bank of Pakistan, while keeping the main policy rate unchanged at 15 percent, projected inflation to be on the higher side of a prior estimate of 18 percent-20 percent in FY2022-23.
