KARACHI : Inflation rate for the month of March would surpass February’s figures and it is likely to remain around 4.79 percent, revealed by media in a survey on Monday.
When contacted researcher, bankers and officials of some of the financial institutions, the 15 keen observers of the economy gave their view on upcoming inflation numbers, the highest was 5.2 percent and lowest was 4.2 percent. The median of 15 researchers stood around 4.79 percent as against February’s 4.2 percent.
The main reason behind the acceleration of inflation has been the continuous rise in petroleum product prices and increase in commodity prices especially chicken, tomato and other food items.
The recently released report of State Bank of Pakistan also hints increasing inflation rate as there has been rise in commodity and petroleum product prices across the globe.
The central bank expects the inflation to be in the range of 4 to 5 percent in the fiscal year 2016-17 from 2015-16 of 2.9 percent.
The rise in inflation has narrowed the gap between the benchmark of interest and inflation rate. Currently the interest rate has been at 5.75 percent and February’s rate of 4.2 percent.
