ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s consumer price inflation jumped to a record 35.37 percent year-on-year in March, the statistics bureau said on Saturday. At least 16 people died as they rushed for food aid.
Inflation in March was higher than February’s 31.5%, and food, beverage and transport prices rose by 50% year-on-year, according to the department.
Thousands of people flocked to flour distribution centers set up across the country as part of a government-supported program to mitigate the effects of inflation.
At least 16 people, including five women and three children, have died in the floods at these facilities in recent days, police and officials said. According to official records, thousands of bags of flour were also looted from trucks and distribution stations.
A spokesman for the Bureau of Statistics said the inflation rate was the highest year-on-year increase the agency recorded since monthly records began in the 1970s.
“This is the highest inflation recorded in the data that we have,” he said.
The consumer price index in March rose 3.72% from the previous month, according to the bureau.
Rising prices of food, cooking oil and electricity boosted the index.
The annual food inflation rate in March was 47.1% and 50.2% in urban and rural areas respectively, according to the department. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, was 18.6% in urban areas and 23.1% in rural areas.
The South Asian country said negotiations with the IMF to secure $1.1 billion in funding as part of the $6.5 billion bailout agreed in 2019 have stalled for months as a severe balance of payments crisis has left the economy in turmoil. I am in turmoil.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have shrunk to cover just four weeks of imports.
Inflation is forecast to continue rising in the monthly economic outlook report released by the Treasury Department on Friday.
The report cites market frictions caused by the relative demand-supply gap of essential commodities, depreciation of the exchange rate and the recent upward adjustment in fuel prices as reasons for rising inflation expectations.
Reported by Asif Shahzad. Additional reporting by her Ariba Shahid in Karachi. Edited by William Mallard and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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