- The Finance Division report links food, energy prices with the fall in inflation.
- “Fiscal consolidation measures are producing tangible results,” he says.
- The resilience of the economy stands out, stability on fiscal external fronts.
Islamabad: Continuing with its constant tendency, inflation based on the Pakistan consumer price (IPC) between 1 and 5% in March 2025 courtesy of ease in inflationary pressures is anticipated.
According to the statistics published by the financial divisions in its report “Economic and perspective update of March 2025”, the inflation of the CPI was registered at 1.5% in February in February 2025 compared to 2.4% in the previous month and 23.1% in February 2024.
Based on MOM, it decreased by 0.8% compared to a 0.2% increase in the previous month. However, the key indicator is likely to witness an increase and 2-3% in April is expected to pass.
Highlighting that the country’s economy was demonstrating resilience and stability on fiscal and external fronts, the report stressed that inflationary pressures have decreased, backed by the decrease in food and energy prices, promoting the general stability of prices.
“Fiscal consolidation measures are producing tangible results, which leads to a primary surplus and a reduced fiscal deficit,” he said.
Linking the decrease in food and energy prices with the fall in inflation, the report says that the main conductors that contribute to the interannual increase of the CPI include health (14.3%), clothing and footwear (13.8%), education (10.9%), restaurants and hotel (7.6%), alcoholic and tobacco drinks (6.7%), maintenance of household equipment (4.5%) (Communication (5%).
Meanwhile, a decrease in perishable foods (20.3%), non -perishable foods (1.5%), transport (1.1%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel (0.6%) were observed.
In its report, the Topine Securities brokerage firm estimates that the country’s CPI for the current month is expected to decrease to a minimum of three decades, registering between 0.5% and 1% year -on -year with a monthly increase of 0.9%.
If so, this would bring the average inflation during the first nine months of FY25 to 5.38%, a strong drop of 27.06% recorded in the same period last year.
The government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that its economy of $ 350 billion has stabilized under a rescue of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $ 7 billion that had helped avoid a threat for non -compliance.
Islamabad expects an IMF agreement on the first rescue review, which, if approved, will disburse $ 1 billion ahead of the country’s annual budget, generally submitted in June.
Inflation in the country in southern Asia has decreased for several months after around 40% in May 2023.
An increase in exports and remittances is also raising the external financing requirements of Pakistan, which are already being supported by the rescue of the IMF and the reinvestments of bilateral loans from friendly countries, according to the report.
It is likely that remittances increase even more due to seasonal factors, such as the sacred month of Ramadan, and the EID Ul Fitr, which follows when Pakistani workers abroad generally send extra money to families at home.
– Additional Reuters entry
