Although the government has touted the lowest inflation in a decade, the cost of essential commodities in Pakistan has soared, with sugar prices reaching a record Rs180 per kilogram in major cities during Ramadan.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), sugar prices rose by Rs14.22 per kilogram, with the steepest rates recorded in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Karachi. Other cities, such as Quetta, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Lahore, and Peshawar, reported prices ranging between Rs175 and Rs176 per kilogram.
Despite these price hikes, reports suggest that Pakistan’s sugar reserves are sufficient to last until October 2025. By February, sugar mills had processed 56 million tons of sugarcane, producing 5.3 million tons of sugar.
The government has exported 741,000 metric tons of sugar and currently maintains reserves of 400,000 to 500,000 tons with sugar mills.
Meanwhile, inflation trends show some improvement, with year-on-year headline inflation dropping to 1.5% in February 2025, down from 2.4% in January. On a month-on-month basis, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell by 0.8% in February, following a 0.2% increase in January and no change in February 2024. For the first eight months of the fiscal year 2025 (8MFY25), the average CPI inflation stood at 5.85%, a significant drop from 27.96% in the same period of FY24.
