Pakistan's Yearly inflation at 3.80 Percent in February

Inflation Rate February, 2018 over January, 2018 (previous month) -0.31 percent

Inflation Rate February, 2018 over February, 2017 (corresponding month) 3.80 percent

Average Inflation Rate July – February, (2017 – 18) over July – February (2016 – 17) 3.84 percent

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics collects the retail and the wholesale prices and computes the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Wholesale price index (WPI) on monthly basis and Sensitive Price Index (SPI) on weekly basis. In February, 2018 the CPI decreased by 0.31 percent, WPI decreased by 0.15 percent, while SPI decreased by 1.21 percent respectively:

Main contributors to month-on-month and year-on-year changes are given below:

Month-on-month: Top few items which varied from previous month i.e. January, 2018 are given below:

Increased: Betel Nuts (72.17%), Diesel (6.60%), Bus Fare (6.54%), Kerosene Oil (3.75%), Petrol (3.66%), Newspapers (3.27%), Tea Lipton (3.15%), Doctor MBBS Fee (1.93%), Synthetic Enamel Robialac (1.75%) and Danedar Tea (1.73%).

Decreased: Onion (25.29%), Tomatoes (20.59%), Potatoes (18.76%), Eggs (10.01%), Gas Cylinder (5.98%), Chicken (5.02%), Gur (4.66%), Silver Tezabi (3.48%), Sugar (3.44%), Pulse Mash (3.30%), Pulse Masoor (2.38%), Gram Whole (1.54%), Cement (1.43%) and Gold Tezabi (1.01%).

Year-on-year: Top few items which varied from previous year i.e. February, 2017 are given below:

Increased: Betel Nuts (436.58%), Chillies Green (51.83%), Onion (45.59%), Kerosene Oil (24.07%), AC Bus Fare (21.64%), Chicken (20.15%), Diesel (19.09%), Petrol (18.64%), Iron Bar (15.59%), Rice Basmati (15.52%) and TCS Charges (11.98%).

Decreased: Garlic (43.95%), Cigarettes (29.75%), Pulse Mash (23.47%), Sugar (17.80%), Pulse Gram (17.22%), Pulse Masoor (16.47%), Pulse Moong (13.87%), Gram Whole (12.76%), Besan (12.43%), Eggs (6.99%), Cement (3.95%) and Tomatoes (3.77%).

Core Inflation of CPI

1. Trimmed Core Inflation

During the month of February, 2018 over January, 2018, the trimmed care inflation has been observed as 4.3 percent while it was 4.1 percent during February, 2017

1. Non-Food & Non-Energy Core Inflation

During the month of February, 2018 over January, 2018 the Non-food & non-energy core inflation has been observed as 5.2 percent while it was 5.3 percent during February, 2017.