April 4, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s annual headline inflation increased drastically in March, hitting a five-year high of 9.4% against 8.2% in February.

The acceleration was driven predominantly by food inflation, which also hit a five-year high of 8.2% in March.

Within the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages group, a sharp rise of about 22% was witnessed in the prices of perishable food items YoY. In the previous month the prices of perishable food items deflated by 0.8% YoY.

Meanwhile, the prices of non-perishable food items witnessed an increase of 6.1% YoY and 0.8% MoM.

Within the perishable food items, the highest hike was recorded in the prices of tomatoes of about 135% against the same period last year. This was followed by fresh vegetables 28.1%, Pulse Moong 22.7% and Onion 15.8%.

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