December 02, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan's inflation slowed to 4.9% in November compared to the previous year, marking the lowest price increase since April 2018 and falling well within the central bank's target range of 5-7%.
This compares to the inflation reading of 7.2% last month and 29.2% in November 2023, the latest data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday showed.
The annual rise in the consumer price index (CPI) was slightly higher than the market expectations of 4.7%.
Accordingly, this takes the average yearly inflation of 5MFY25 to 7.88% compared to 28.62% in 5MFY24.
On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.5% in November 2024 as compared to the 1.23% rise of the previous month and an increase of 2.7% in November 2023.
The Urban core inflation, measured by non-food non-energy, increased to 8.9% on a YoY basis in November 2024 as compared to 8.6% in the previous month and 18.6% in November 2023.
On the MoM basis, it increased by 1.2% in November 2024 as compared to an increase of 0.6% in the previous month and an increase of 0.9% in the corresponding month of last year.
CPI inflation rural decreased to 10.9% on a YoY basis in November 2024 as compared to 11.7% in the previous month and 25.9% in November 2023.
A sequential basis comparison shows that inflation remained unchanged at 0.7% in November 2024 as compared to the previous month and an increase of 1.4% in November 2023.
With the CPI-based inflation rate at 4.86% and the policy rate at 15%, the real interest now stands at 10.14%.
