(MENAFN- The Peninsula) All provincial capitals except Quetta are among high-inflation cities in Pakistan, with federal capital Islamabad having the highest inflation rate.
According to the latest edition of Inflation Monitor, issued by the State Bank of Pakistan, Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation in Islamabad was 14.6 percent while the country's inflation rate for June (year-on-year basis) was 8.2 percent.
A wide variation in inflation was noted among different cities, and CPI was lowest in Bahawalnagar at 3.8 percent.
Despite being among high-inflation cities, Karachi had 8.5 percent inflation in June, the second lowest in the list. The lowest was Mingora, with 8.3 percent inflation.
In most cities, inflation was dominated by non-food inflation, excluding Karachi, where food inflation was the main cause of higher CPI. Non-food inflation in Islamabad was 18.8 percent compared to 7.3 percent in Karachi. Lahore and Peshawar both had high inflation, at 10.1 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.
The cities with very high non-food inflation were Mardan (14.2 percent), Nawab Shah (13.1 percent), Faisalabad (12.4 percent), Mianwali (11.9 percent) and D G Khan (11.8 percent).
High non-food inflation indicates that the cost of production and construction is very high, which means either the cities are rich and pay high prices for non-food items or supply constraints are pushing up prices.
Quetta is the only provincial capital among the low-inflation cities and had an inflation rate of 6.3 percent.
The cities with double-digit food inflation were Khuzdar (12.8 percent), D G Khan (12 percent), Lahore (10.6 percent), Sukkur (10.3 percent) and Attock (10.1 percent).
The data show that the middle income group pays the highest prices for both food and non-food items. People in the Rs18,000-35,000 per month income group faced the highest inflation, of 8.6 percent, in June 2014. The same people faced non-food inflation of 9.6 percent - the highest among all income groups.
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