Islamabad : The Consumer Price Index (CPI), during December 2017 witnessed an increase of 4.57 per cent as compared to the same month during 2016,
This was said by Director Prices, Pakistan Bureau of Statistic Attiq ur Rehman in monthly press briefing held here on Monday.
He said that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics collected the retail and the wholesale prices and prepare the CPI and WPI on monthly base while the SPI is calculated on weekly basis. Quoting the data about the CPI, he said that the CPI for food and non-alcoholic beverages on yearly basis increased by 4.57 per cent in December 2017 as compared to the same month of last year.
Giving details, he said the inflation witnessed negative growth of 0.10 per cent in December 2017 as compared to November 2017. He said the CPI inflation during July-December (2017-18) increased by 3.75 percent as compared to the first half of the fiscal year 2016-17. Regarding Wholesale Price Index (WPI) during the month of December, Attiq ur Rehman said it has showed an increase by 0.36 percent while the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) witnessed growth of 0.67 percent.
Similarly, the CPI for non-perishable food items increased to 2.30 per cent, perishable items by 22.94 per cent, clothing and footwear by 3.64 per cent, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels by 4.86 per cent, household equipment maintenance cost by 3.26 per cent, health by 10.92 percent while the CPI for transport increased by 4.45 percent.
He said the CPI for communication increased by 1.23 per cent, recreation and culture by 0.59 percent, education by 12.40 percent, restaurant and hotel by 6.38 percent while the CPI for miscellaneous goods and services increased by 6.50 percent.
Giving details about change in prices on yearly basis, he said, the top items which witnessed decrease in prices in December 2017 included clothing and foot wear, by 18.10 percent as compared to December 2016. He said the items that witnessed increase in prices during December 2017 compared to December 2016 included, onions by 130.35 percent, tomatoes by 29.35 percent, government university fee by 37.72 percent, government engineering college fee by 32.47 percent, government college fee by 23.90 percent, potatoes by 21.72 percent, chicken by 21.21 percent, gas cylinder by 17.04 percent, petrol by 14.94 percent, iron bar by 14.16 percent, diesel by 12.80 percent and kerosene oil by 13.51 percent.
Director Prices SBP Attique ur Rehman said the items that witnessed decrease in prices during December included garlic by 45.46 percent, gram pulse by 28.85 percent, mash pulse by 27.41 percent, gram whole by 21.71 percent, moong pulse by 21.19 percent, masoor pulse by 20.77 percent, besan by 20.25 percent, sugar by 13.45 percent, cement by 1.28 percent and wheat by 1.16 percent.
