47. Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12 - Consultancy Services in ...

Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12estimated to have also risen in India, Bangladesh and Thailand (Table 7.1).Table: 7.1 Regional Countries Food Price InflationPakistan India Bangladesh Thailand Sri LankaCPI Food CPI Food CPI Food CPI Food CPI FoodJul-11 12.4 17.1 8.4 8.2 11.0 13.4 4.1 7.2 7.4 9.3Aug-11 11.6 13.2 9.0 9.6 11.3 12.7 4.2 8.4 7.0 8.2Sep-11 10.5 9.9 10.1 9.6 12.0 13.8 4.1 8.9 6.4 6.6Oct-11 11.0 11.7 9.4 10.2 11.6 10.9 4.2 9.9 5.1 3.8Nov-11 10.2 10.0 9.3 8.5 11.6 12.5 4.1 10.2 4.7 2.1Dec-11 9.7 9.5 6.5 0.7 10.6 10.4 3.6 9.1 4.9 2.5Jan-12 10.1 9.2 5.3 -0.5 11.6 10.9 3.4 7.7 3.8 -0.2Feb-12 11.0 10.5 8.8 6.1 10.4 8.9 3.4 7.2 2.7 -4.1Mar-12 10.8 9.8 9.5 9.9 10.1 8.3 3.4 7.1 5.5 -2.5Apr-12 11.3 10.7 - - 9.9 8.1 2.7 4.9 6.1 0.2Source: PBS, BBS, Ministry of Commerce & Industry India, Bank of Thailand.Food insecurity is a multi dimensional problemand deserves to be tackled through a multi prongedstrategic approach where demand, supply anddistribution factors need to be taken into account.Availability and access, two important componentsof food security needs to be addressedsimultaneously. Food carries the largest weight inthree price indices and hence influences themovement of these indices even with slightvariation in prices. The most visible impact ofrising food prices on the economy is accelerationof inflationary pressure. In such a situationcontrolling the inflation becomes unmanageable.Pakistan is experiencing double-digit inflation overthe last several years mainly due to increase inprices of food.Inflation is generally measured by the ConsumerPrice Index (CPI). The other measures of inflationused in Pakistan are the Wholesale Price Index(WPI) and Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI).The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) haschanged the base year of the price indices from2000-01 to 2007-08, which by comparison with theprevious base has undergone considerable changein terms of revision to commodity groups; theirweights derived from Family Budget Survey 2007-08; and, coverage of items to capture the changingpattern of consumption of the people.The old basket of commodities in the CPI has beenrevised and the commodities increased from 374 to487 items and the commodity groups from 10 to12. The coverage of cities has also been increasedfrom 35 to 40. Proper representation has beengiven to large cities (population of 500,000 andabove), medium cities (population 100,000 to500,000), medium small cities (population 50,000to 100,000) and small cities (population below50,000). The food group weight has been reducedfrom 40.3 percent to 34.8 percent and 21 items inthe old basket have been dropped while 111 newitems have been added. Health and Restaurant twonew sub indexes have been included. The subindex of transport and communication in the oldbase year has been split into two separate subgroups as transport and communication group.Rent being an important component of CPI is nowcomputed on the basis of real rental value ratherthan using wage rates and prices of constructionmaterials. In the CPI series with base 2000-01, thecoverage in terms of income groups is as below:i. Up to Rs. 3000ii. Rs. 3001 to Rs. 5000iii. Rs. 5001 to Rs. 12000, andiv. Above Rs. 12000In the new series with base 2007-08, the incomegroups have been divided into five incomequintiles as under:i. Up to Rs. 8000ii. Rs. 8001 to Rs. 12000iii. Rs. 12001 to Rs. 18000, andiv. Rs. 18001 to Rs. 35000v. Above Rs. 35000100