Inflationary pressure likely to surge
Hike in product prices globally is driving uptrend in local market
PHOTO: REUTERS LAHORE:
After bearing the brunt of hard economic conditions amid the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers in Pakistan have been hit by steep increase in prices of raw material for industrial products and other commodities including food items.
According to experts and global trends, inflationary pressure is likely to surge in near future meaning that masses will have to pay extra money to buy essential food and non-food items.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported that consumer price index soared to 11.1% in April 2021, the highest rate of inflation in past 13 months.
Industry irked by soaring input prices
Rise in global prices fuelled by reduced production, supply chain disruption
Improvement in economy is expected to come from a steady performance of agriculture and recovery in services sector. PHO-TO: FILE
LAHORE:
While the economy as a whole is facing inflationary pressure, the industry is encountering an additional challenge due to rising cost of imports as important raw material and intermediary goods used by the domestic manufacturing industry are getting costly every month.
International prices are rising on the back of reduced production and disruption to the supply chain because of the pandemic.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) - a world hub for the trading of these materials - reported an exponential increase in the cost of critical metals. In April 2020, steel hot-rolled coils (HRC) were trading at $375 per ton, however, in December 2020, they are being traded at $567 per ton.