The country's Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation rate for the month of March 2013 rose to 0.41 percent over the previous month (February 2013).
“On year-on-year basis, the inflation during March 2013 increased by6.57 percent as compared to the same month of last year”, Director General Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Arif Mehmood Cheema said during a press conference here Monday.The average inflation rate during the first nine months (July-March2012-13) witnessed an increase of 7.98 percent as compared to same period last year.
The Wholesale Price Index and Sensitive (WPI) Prices Index (SPI) inMarch 2013 ticked up by 0.26 percent and 0.78 percent as against
February 2013.According to the data compiled by PBS, on month-on-month basis, the food items that witnessed increase in the prices during March 2013 over February 2013 included onions (29.5%), tomatoes (17.08%), tea (5.44%), eggs (4.71%), fresh fruits (4.18%), beverages (2.59%), fresh vegetables (1.23%), beans (0.91%), cereals (0.78%), Nimco (0.75%), milk powder (0.63%), jam, tomato ketchup & pickles (0.58%) and bakery & confectionery (0.38%).
The food items that witnessed decrease in the prices during March 2013 over February 2013 included chicken (12.04%), spices (6.11%), pulse gram (5.99%), gram flour (4.67%), whole grams (4.6%), potatoes (2.48%), fish (1.73%), gur (0.76%), pulse (masoor) (0.5%), cooking oil (0.36%), wheat flour (0.32%), betel leaves & nuts (0.26%), pulse (mash) and vegetable ghee (0.14% each).
The non-food items that witnessed increase during the month included newspaper (8.19%), text books (3.18%), water charges (2.88%), transport services (1.49%), education (1.19%), construction input items (1.11%), cleaning & laundry (0.97%), cotton cloth (0.95%), tailoring (0.94%), furniture (0.86%) and ready made garments (0.82%).The non-food items that witnessed decrease included personal equipments (1.17%), motor fuel (0.64%) and wooden ready-made garments (0.46%).
On year-on-year basis, the food items that witnessed increase in prices during March 2013 over same month of last year included tomatoes (100.22%), wheat (22.89%), wheat flour (19.31%), honey (18.57%), rice (17.3%), cigarettes (17.11%), wheat products (15.67%), tea (14.31%), milk powder (13.55%), beans (12.47%), onions (11.33%), potatoes (10.66%) and milk fresh (10.62%).
On year-on-year basis, the food items that witnessed decrease in prices included spices (18.03%), fresh fruits (12.99%), fresh vegetables (11.86%), chicken (11.5%), pulse (mash) (8.28%), pulse (moong) (7.68%), sugar (6.21%), gram whole (5.57%), vegetable ghee (1.51%), pulse (masoor) (0.92%) and eggs (0.88%).
The non-food items that witness increase in prices during the month of March 2013 included text books (44.71%), woolen ready-made garments (19.97%), cleaning & laundry (17.99%), Dopatta cloth (17.48%), electricity (16.39%), newspaper (13.68%) and hosiery (13.34%).
The items, which witnessed decrease in prices on year-on-year basis included gas, the prices of which decreased by 46.08%.
In March 2013 against March 2012, the trimmed core inflation was 8.4 percent whereas it was 10.5 percent during March 2012 as against March 2011.On the other hand, the non-food and non-energy core inflation was recorded 9.0 percent, while it was 10.8 percent during March 2012 over March 2011.