Winter season prompts CPI for clothes to outrun prior months' figures

December 06, 2018 (MLN): As winter season hits home, the prices of woolen clothes and readymade garments soar high, causing November’s CPI inflation for these items to rise by 3.4% and 4.7%, based on month on month comparison.

Carrying a total weightage of around 7.6% in CPI basket, ‘Clothing and Footwear’ group’s CPI has inflated by 1.2% MoM, and 7.5% YoY.

Under month-on-month analysis, this is the largest CPI growth for this group in the last 7 months, the reason being, as mentioned before, the approaching winters. Taking lead from this, since Pakistan experiences the peak of winters in December and January, these figures might rise further in upcoming months.

Month-on-month chart for 2018

Meanwhile on year-on-year basis, this is 2018’s largest CPI growth for this category. This could be attributed to the fact that all the basic materials required to manufacture clothes, including color pigment, buttons and even gas and electricity, have to be imported, thus the sector heavily relies on imports.

Year-on-year chart for 2018

Although inflation for woolen items have recorded the largest changes amongst other clothing items, their individual weightages in the basket remain marginal.

Cotton Cloth, the item carrying maximum weightage in this category, has witnessed CPI inflation worth 0.61% MoM, and 7% YoY.

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