Pakistan’s June inflation surges to highest in 13 years

PAKISTAN, ARGENTINA: Pakistan’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 21.3% in June from a year earlier, the Statistics Bureau said, for the South Asian nation’s highest inflation in 13 years.

In May, the CPI was up 13.8% on the year. The month-on-month rise in June was 6.3%.

The spike comes as fuel prices have risen about 90% since end-May after the government scrapped costly fuel subsidies in a bid to cut its surging fiscal deficit and secure resumption of an IMF bailout programme.

Transport saw the biggest rise, with its index rising 62.2% in June on the year. The price index for food items, which make up about a third of the CPI basket, rose 25.9%.

Pakistan has been struggling with high inflation for the last few months. The CPI index rose 12.1% for financial year 2021-22, which ended in June, compared with 8.9% in the last financial year. Prices of fuel were hiked further on Thursday, with the Government imposing a petroleum levy in its battle to reduce the fiscal deficit.

Meanwhile, Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman, who led debt renegotiations with the International Monetary Fund, announced his resignation in a statement shared on Twitter on Saturday.

As economy minister, the 39-year-old Guzman was tasked with renegotiating a $44 billion debt with the IMF that Argentina insisted it could not afford to repay.

Agricultural powerhouse Argentina may have the third largest economy in Latin America but it has been in economic crisis for years, with inflation of more than 60 percent in the last 12 months.

– NDTV