The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has said that the inflation rate in January fell to 5.65% from 8% in the previous month.

The fall in prices of vegetables, pulses, eggs and chicken helped lower the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the bureau said in a statement.

The statement said that Urban CPI recorded a decline of 16% and Roll CPI recorded a decrease of 29%. It was 79 per cent.

Inflation for the first time in the first month of the new year came to the level where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government met in August 2018, after hitting a high of 14% early last year.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had said in his statement yesterday that governments efforts to reduce inflation are now in full swing. Both the consumer price index and inflation are below the rate we had when we formed the government.

“I have instructed my economic team to be cautious and ensure that inflation is kept under control,” Imran Khan said.

Federal Minister for Development and Planning Asad Omar said that inflation has been steadily declining, with CPI falling to 5.7 per cent in January and core inflation to 5.4 per cent.

He said that before the PTI took over the government, the CPI was 5.8 per cent and the basic inflation was 7.6 per cent and today this rate has come down from the rate before the coming of our government.

On the other hand, the opposition criticizes the government for the government’s economic mismanagement, which has reduced the GDP to 0.4 per cent, compared to 5.8 per cent in the PML-N government.

The opposition says the government has raised the inflation rate from 4% to 14%.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast Pakistan’s economic growth to be 1.5 per cent this year, while the government has set a target of 2.3 per cent for the fiscal year 2021.

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