As supply shocks dissipate thereafter, inflation is expected to gradually fall toward the 5-7 percent target range over the medium-term, says SBP. Inflation rose to 11.1 percent (YoY) in April 2021, surged by the lingering impact of this February’s electricity tariff increase as well as a pick-up in month-on-month food prices, partly driven by the usual seasonality around Ramzan.
In the recent meeting, MPC noted that supply-shocks to food and energy still dominate, with a small number of energy and food items in the CPI basket accounting for about three-fourths of the rise in inflation since January. The MPC also observed that although core inflation in urban areas has risen by around 1.5 percentage points during this period, available evidence suggests that demand-side pressures on inflation continue to be relatively contained. This reflects the fact that despite the economic recovery, there is still some spare capacity following last year’s contraction.
Second-round effects from the supply shocks are also not visibly apparent: price pressures are concentrated in a few items, wage growth is subdued keeping a cap on costs, and inflation expectations remain reasonably anchored. As previously forecast, the headline year-on-year inflation rate is likely to remain elevated in the coming months due to the recent electricity tariff hike, pushing the average for FY21 close to the upper end of the announced range of 7-9 percent.
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