Media reported a surge in the prices of meat especially Chicken, rice and wheat flour pushed weekly inflation up 1.09 percent in Pakistan.
According to figures issued on Friday by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), annual inflation increased by 30.60%, raising concerns among low- and middle-income people that they may soon be unable to afford even necessities. The increase in prices was seen for chicken (16.09 pc), broken basmati rice (5.16 pc), wheat flour (4.87 pc), rice irri-6/9 (3.45 pc), bananas (2.97 pc), onions (2.65 percent), bread (1.24 pc), powdered salt (1.07 pc), and pulse moong were to blame for the WoW increase in the sensitive price indicator (SPI) (1.02pc).
Whereas on the other hand, the decrease was observed in the prices of potatoes (4.61pc), eggs (1.31pc), tomatoes (1.17pc), LPG (0.85pc), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.71pc), cooking oil 5 liters (0.32pc), sugar (0.24pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (0.11pc) and pulse masoor (0.05pc), Geo News reported.
The prices of wheat have increased due to the support price gap between Sindh and Punjab which has caused a shortage of grain in wheat flour mills. However, prices of milk and firewood increased; sugar and vegetable ghee declined, whereas the price of electricity and long cloth remained as it is. Also, the rise in the price of chicken has been caused by a shortage of soybean feed.
Moreover, food inflation surged by 32.7 percent in cities and 37.9 percent in villages/towns last month, respectively in Pakistan, showed the PBS data.