ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan’s annual inflation climbed to 4.4 per cent in January from 3.7 per cent in the same month last year mainly due to hike in petroleum prices.

However, it eased from 4.6% in December 2017 owing to a decline in the prices of some perishable products.

Inflation, measured through the consumer price index (CPI), tracks the prices of around 480 commodities every month in urban centres across the country.

This is still the second highest month-on-month increase since April 2017. The trend indicates that the consumer inflation will move up in the next months due to an increase in the petroleum prices, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The recent depreciation of rupee will also be reflected in the prices of imported goods in the coming months, in addition to the regulatory duties imposed on several products since October 2017 that will further pushup the prices in the category.

Average inflation in July 2017-January 2018 was 3.85%, registering no change compared to the last year. The annual inflation target for the current fiscal year was 6p%.

Food inflation was 3.7% on an annual basis but dipped 1% on a monthly basis.

On a monthly basis, prices of non-perishable food items increased 0.54%  while those of perishable products dropped 10.4%.

Food items whose prices increased the most in January were betel leaves and nuts, up 74% month-on-month, chicken 9.9%, fresh fruits 4.6pc, rice 2.9%, pulse moong 2.3%, wheat 1.4% and milk product 1%.

In the same category, tomatoes dipped 37.3% month-on-month, potatoes 25%, fresh vegetables 13.9%, eggs 10.7%, onion 9.5%, besan 1.8%, pulse mash 1.6%, gur 1.3% and sugar 1.1%.

Non-food inflation remained 4.9% year on-year and 0.8% month-on-month.

Global crude oil prices increased in the past few months and their impact was passed on to the consumers in Pakistan.

Core inflation, measured by excluding volatile food and energy prices, was recorded at 5.2% in January. The gradual build-up of domestic demand is evident in the rising core inflation. Of the 89 commodity groups of CPI, it covers the price movement of 43 items.

The core inflation has remained subdued since November 2015 because of a tighter monetary policy and is expected to go up.

Within the group, education and health indices rose 12.4% and 4.7% respectively on a year-on-year basis.

A decline of 18.2% was witnessed in the index of and tobacco.

Pakistan’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves amounted to $19.354 billion on Jan 26, down $285.9 million or 1.45 per cent from a week ago, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Friday.

Reserves of the SBP decreased $298m to $13.234 billion. The decrease in reserves is due to payments on account of external debt servicing and other official outflows.