New Pakistan and inflation

 

By: Aniha Anam Chaudhry

This is about the year 2008 when the bank customers in Pakistan suddenly found out that the service charges of the bank have gone up a lot after withdrawing cash from the bank's ATM machine. The issue was not limited to just one or two banks but all the banks in the country abruptly increased their ATM charges by a factor of one. Committing groupings. The commission heard the complaint and fined all these banks Rs. 77 crore, blaming them for "illegal nexus"

Even today, the same nexus or cartelization is echoing in Pakistan and this is due to the ongoing inflation in the country, especially the sudden rise in the price of flour and sugar. In the last few weeks, some government officials The cartels, which are very close to Prime Minister Imran Khan himself and some members of his cabinet, have been blamed for the price hike. Establishing business alliances or monopolies around the world is a long-standing tradition, but its At the same time, state institutions are also active against it. The situation in Pakistan is also different, because the flour thieves, drug thieves, sugar thieves who should have been prosecuted and prosecuted are playing an important role in this government.

It is to be noted that the overall inflation rate in Pakistan was recorded at 6.8% in the financial year 2018-19 which closed at 10.7% at the end of the financial year 2019-20. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had claimed to keep the inflation rate at 4 percent during his tenure. The prices of flour have gone up by 50 to 60 per cent this year as compared to last year, sugar by 20 to 30 per cent, lentils by 25 per cent and groundnuts by 40 per cent. In addition, the price of lentil mash increased by more than 30%, coking oil by 10%, dry milk by 5%, meat by about 10%, milk by more than 10% and rice by more than 10%. The price also increased by more than 10%

The measure of inflation in Pakistan is the Consumer Price Index, commonly called the CPI. This index measures the rate of inflation in Pakistan. The Consumer Price Index is a set of commonly used goods and services for the population called CPI Basket. The prices of various items in the basket are monitored. According to CPI Basket, an average Pakistani spends 34.58% on food items, 26.68% on rent, electricity, gas, water bills and fuel. However, 8.6% is spent on clothing and footwear, about 7% on hotel, about 6% on transportation, more than 4% on home renovation and repair, 3.8% on education and 2.7% on health. The main reason for the rise in inflation in recent weeks has been food inflation.