Prices control in Ramzan go out of hand

The monthly inflation-based consumer price index (CPI) decreased in April Prices control in Ramzan go out of hand.

Pulses, fruits, poultry, drugs, sugar became pricier as vegetables, milk, wheat, petroleum products and electricity prices decreased.

Different leaders in the business community demanded that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) continue to lower interest rates to boost the country’s economy.

In April 2020, the CPI decelerated from 10.2 percent, in February, to 8.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) basis.

 In April this decreased by 0.8% compared to the previous month’s increase of 0.04% and a rise of 0.7% in April 2019. 

In April 2020, the inflation of UrbanCPI rose by 7.7 percent year-on-year, compared to a 9.3 percent rise in the previous month and 8.4 percent in April 2019.

On a month-to-month (MOM) basis, it decreased by 0.7 percent in April 2020 compared with a 0.1 percent rise in the previous month and a 0.8 percent increase in April 2019.

On the other hand, the inflation of the Rural CPI in April 2020 rose by 9.8 per cent year-on-year compared with an rise of 11.7 per cent in the previous month and 8.1 per cent in April 2019.

It decreased by 1.1 per cent in April 2020 on a month-to-month basis, compared with a decrease of 0.1 per cent in the previous month and an rise of 0.6 per cent in April 2019.

Meanwhile, YoY-related inflation related on the Responsive Price Index (SPI) rose by 9.0 percent in April 2020 compared to an 11.8 percent rise a month earlier and a 10.0 percent increase in April 2019.

It dropped by 2.0% in April 2020 compared to a 0.3% decline in April 2020 and a rise of 0.5% in April 2019, based on MoM. 

The YoY-based wholesale price index (WPI) increased by 5.1 percent in April 2020 compared with a 9.2 percent rise a month earlier and a 17.1 percent increase in April 2019. 

The core inflation, calculated by a 20% trimmed average Rural CPI (Core Trimmed), increased by 9.3% in April 2020 compared to 11.4% in the previous month and 7.3% in April 2019.  

On (MoM) scale, it declined by 0.6 % in April 2020 compared to a 0.1 percent increase in the prior month and a 0.8 percent increase in the same month of the last year, i.e. April 2019-April.