Islamabad: Pakistan’s annual headline inflation rate decreased to 9.64% in August 2024, marking the lowest level in three years since October 2021. The report also highlighted a modest month-over-month increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 0.4% from July 2024.

According to United Nations World Food Programme, the annual food inflation rose by 2.5% compared to August 2023. The prices of staple cereals saw mixed trends; wheat and wheat flour prices recorded a slight decrease, while rice prices saw a slight increase over the previous month. Notably, there was a significant year-on-year price rise for the rice variety Irri-6 and a decrease in the prices of wheat and wheat flour.

Non-cereal food prices also showed fluctuations. There was a notable month-on-month increase in the prices of live chicken and eggs, along with slight increases in the prices of gram, moong, mash, and ghee. Conversely, masoor and sugar prices saw a slight decline. Year-on-year, significant price spikes were observed for pulses such as gram, moong, mash, masoor, and chicken, while there were significant decreases in the price of cooking oil and slight decreases for ghee, sugar, and eggs.

The report further mentioned that Pakistan’s Terms of Trade (ToT) improved by 5.3% over the past month and showed an overall improvement of 64% compared to the same period last year.