ISLAMABAD: The overall Consumer price Index (CPI) monthly-based inflation grew by 12.6 percent on year-on-year (YoY) basis in December, 2019 compared to same month of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Wednesday.
With base year 2015-16, the CPI national for the month of December 2019 decreased by 0.3 percent on month-on-month (MoM) basis when compared to November 2019, the data revealed.
According to breakup figures, the Urban CPI based inflation increased by 12 percent on year on year basis while on month-on-month basis, it went down by 0.4 percent. On the other hand, the Rural CPI based inflation increased 13.6 percent on YoY basis while it decreased by 0.3 percent on MoM basis.
Meanwhile the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) witnessed an increase of 18.1 percent on YoY basis and decrease of 2 percent on MoM basis. Likewise, the Wholesale Price Index on YoY basis increased by 12.4 percent and witnessed decrease of 0.3 percent on MoM basis.
During the month of December 2019, the core inflation measured by non-food non-energy (NFNE) Uran CPI increased by 7.5 percent on YoY basis and 0.4 percent MoM basis whereas the Core Inflation measured by NFNE Rural CPI increased by 8.1 percent on YoY basis and 0.5 percent on MoM basis.
The top few food commodities that witnessed increase in their prices on YoY basis included tomatoes (321.04%), onions (169.45%), fresh vegetables (83.59%), potatoes(78.23%), pulse moong (53.24%), pulse mash (38.44%), gur (31.22%), sugar (27.81%), wheat (21.68%), cooking oil (16.67%), vegetable ghee (16.39%), wheat flour (15.8%), pulse masoor (13.82%), fish (13.64%), meat (13.45%), dry fruits(13.25%), besan (11.96%), beverages (11.1%), pulse gram (11%), beans (10.84%), milk powder (10.64%) and tea (10.21%). However, among the food commodities, 17.17 percent decrease was witnessed in the prices of chicken.
On the other hand, the non-food commodities that witnessed increase in prices included gas charges (54.84%), construction input items (18.51%), motor fuel(17.95%), electricity charges (17.57%), motor vehicles (16.6%), cotton cloth(12.49%), transport services (11.89%), doctor (MBBS) clinic fee (11.2%), woolen cloth (10.44%), and motor vehicle accessories (10.04%).
However, liquefied hydrocarbons prices witnessed decrease of 2.83%, during the month under review, the PBS data revealed.
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