One of the leading causes of inflation is higher food prices that have increased on a yearly basis. Within urban centers, food prices have gone up by 16.7 percent and in rural areas, the figure stands at 19.7 percent. The government is working to reduce these prices and to be able to sell off food items at a controlled rate. Producers and sellers are known to sell food items at prices set by them wherever the government cannot practice control. This activity goes on in several areas of the country, with consumers complaining of prices not matching the rates set by the government. For this purpose, the government is trying to implement certain programmes. For instance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the government is launching the Durust Daam Application within the first week of January to help people know the prices at which food items will be available.
This application will only be available in Mardan, Peshawar, and Abbottabad before being launched in the rest of the province. It is based on a similar project that the government executed in Rawalpindi through the Qeemat Application. The application helped in controlling the price hike and is currently being used by over 600,000 people. Such rigorous efforts on part of the government allow people space for some relief during times of seven-year high inflation in the country. Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan also held a meeting this Wednesday to discuss prices of items like ghee, flour, sugar, pulses, and vegetables to ensure that they are within a reasonable limit as set by the government.
There is non-food inflation in the country as well, caused by the hike in oil prices along with the depreciation of the exchange rate. This particular inflation has witnessed a 9.5 percent increase in urban areas and an 8.8 percent increase in rural areas. While the government cannot exercise control over non-food inflation, the control on the inflation of food items has resulted in a monthly decrease in such inflation, causing the overall inflation within Pakistan to go down to 12.63 percent from 12.7 percent in the month of December. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that the inflation rate went down by 0.34 percent. If the government can retain such efforts and provide relief to consumers, it would certainly turn around the narrative because the current living conditions are quite expensive for the common man that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) stood up for.