Unabated price-rise hurts the common Pakistani but government looks the other way

ISLAMABAD: At a time when Pakistan is battling serious economic challenges with a sagging growth rate and fewer jobs amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the common man has been hit by unabated price rise. Earlier this month, the country's television news channel, Geo News quoted market research company Ipos saying that about 49 per cent of the Pakistanis living in the country believe that the price rise was due to the mismanagement of the Imran Khan-led government.

Pakistan has been witnessing a steady increase in its inflationary trends since last year. The inflation rate, as measured by the consumer price index, was 6.8 per cent in 2018-19 but has been rising since then. In the financial year 2019-20 the inflation rate hit 10.7 per cent, the highest in the world.

"Despite weak activity, consumer price inflation rose from an average of 6.8 per cent in FY19 to an average of 10.7 percent in FY20, due to surging food inflation, hikes in administered energy prices, and a weaker rupee, which depreciated 13.8 percent against the US dollar in FY20," a World Bank report said.

In January this year, even before the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, Pakistan's inflation rate rose to a whopping 14.6 per cent. After remaining at double digit levels till March, the overall inflation rate fell to 8.5 per cent in April.

In September, the inflation rate breached the 9 per cent mark while in October it eased a little to touch 8.91 per cent.

"Corruption is another big problem that plagues the country, so the retail prices are often significantly higher than the officially quoted prices, making life even more difficult for the local people and more so for the poorer section," an analyst told Indianarrative.com on condition of anonymity.

The Dawn newspaper last month flashed a report highlighting that despite the arrival of imported vegetables prices of tomatoes and onions hit new peaks of 200 PKR and 80 PKR per kg. (IANS)

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