KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan’s consumer inflation accelerated in October to 26.6% from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Tuesday, with prices showing a rise of 4.7% from the previous month.
In September, the consumer price index rose 23.2% on year, slowing from a decades-high 27.3% in August.
The rise in consumer prices in October from last month was boosted mainly by electricity and food prices, the bureau said in a statement. The higher CPI from October last year was due to the rising costs of food and fuel.
Persistently high inflation has put severe strain on the South Asian country’s economy, which is also reeling from falling foreign exchange reserves, a depreciating and unstable currency, as well as a widening current account deficit.
Foreign exchange reserves with the central bank stand at $7.4 billion, barely enough to cover a month’s imports.
Devastating floods in August, that killed more than 1,700 people, have added to the country’s woes with massive damage to standing crops and inundation of agricultural lands.
In September, the central bank, while keeping the main policy rate unchanged at 15%, projected inflation after the floods to be on the higher side of a prior estimate of 18%-20% in FY2022-23.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam, Editing by Louise Heavens and Jacqueline Wong)
