Prices of essential commodities have registered a decline due to administrative measures taken by provincial governments for reducing the gap between the wholesale and retail price, the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) was informed on Wednesday.
While presiding over the meeting of the NPMC, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin was updated on the prices of essential commodities like wheat flour have marked a continuous decline in the prices in the country for the last five weeks.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib, secretary Ministry of NFS&R, secretary Ministry of Industries and Production, provincial chief secretaries, economic advisor Finance Division, PBS chief statistician, MD Utility Stores Corporation (USC), ICT deputy commissioner and other senior officers participated in the meeting.
The meeting expressed satisfaction over the availability of sufficient stocks of wheat in the country.
The economic adviser Finance Division briefed the NPMC on CPI inflation and informed that prices of both perishable and non-perishable food items have shown significant decline in their prices. He highlighted that CPI inflation on a YoY basis was 12.3 per cent in December 2021 as compared to 8pc in December 2020 whereas CPI inflation on a MoM basis remained at -0.02pc in December 2021 compared to 3pc in November 2021.
The meeting was also briefed on the weekly SPI which decreased by 0.50pc in the week as compared to previous week, which increased by 0.40 percent.
The meeting was while being briefed on sugar prices and its stock position in the country was told that sugar prices have recorded a slight increase in various cities. Somewhat similarly, there are also variations in the prices of pulses while there has also been a rise in the prices of eggs and chicken due to seasonal factors, the meeting was told.
The NPMC also directed the Ministry of NFS&R to formulate a strategy for the provision of storage infrastructure for improving the supply chain of perishable food items.
