Pakistan: Inflation in last 3 years breaks 70-year record

Opposition parties have launched nationwide agitations against the steep increase in prices.

Pakistan’s inflation has broken a 70-year record over the last three years, with the prices of food doubling and those of ghee, oil, sugar, flour and poultry reaching historic levels.

A leading newspaper quoted the Federal Bureau of Statistics, which said electricity rates had increased 57 per cent between October 2018 and 2021. The price of LPG cylinders had shot up by 51 per cent and petrol by 49 per cent, said the report in The News International. The highest increase in food items was the price of edible ghee, which shot up by 108 per cent. Sugar was dearer by 83 per cent in three years, the report pointed out. Beef prices have shot up by 48 per cent and milk by 32 per cent.

The opposition parties have also been raising the issue and organising protests against the rising prices. “The country is paying the price for inflation, economic devastation and unemployment and the government has no realisation that it is not only the poor but even those holding white-collar jobs that have been crushed by it,” Shahbaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president, was quoted in the media.

Pakistan PM thanks Saudi Crown Prince for $4.2 billion financial support

The State Bank of Pakistan recently hiked the interest rate from seven per cent to 7.25 per cent after a 15-month gap, to keep inflation expectations anchored and slow the growth in the current account deficit.

Opposition parties have launched nationwide agitations against the steep increase in prices. The Pakistan Democratic Movement and the PPP have been organising the protests.

• Pakistan