Pakistan’s inflation accelerate more than estimated last month: Bloomberg

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s inflation accelerated more than estimated last month on costlier food, adding pressure on the central bank to resume monetary policy tightening.

According to a report published in Bloomberg, consumer prices rose 26.6% in October from a year earlier, according to government data released Tuesday. That compares with a median estimate for 22.9% gain in a Bloomberg survey, and 23.2% rate in September.

Also read: Weekly inflation rises by 4.13pc

The acceleration adds pressure on the State Bank of Pakistan to resume raising borrowing costs. The SBP has been on a pause for the last two policy meetings after delivering 525 basis points of interest-rate hikes this year.

Also read: Alarming inflation

The report said Pakistan is facing multiple challenges as its foreign exchange reserves have shrunk to almost one month’s worth of imports, making debt repayments difficult and forcing authorities to demand debt relief due to devastation caused by floods.

At a fortnightly review on Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government decided to freeze domestic fuel prices for the next 15 days, in an apparent move to check inflation as his political rival Imran Khan has started a protest march to Islamabad for early elections.