ISLAMABAD - The tight monetary policy has virtually failed to achieve its objective of combating inflation, which has pushed up the cost of living and made it the most important problem in the country. The soaring inflation continued its upward journey in the month of May and remained at 13.07 percent as compared to the same period of the last year, Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) reported here on Friday. Meanwhile, Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) recorded inflation at 15.18 percent and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) at 21.21 percent in the month of May over the corresponding month in the previous year. CPI based inflation went up by 0.06 percent in May as compared to the figures of April. The WPI increased by 0.87 percent in May over April. Compared to April, the SPI went down by 0.06 percent in the month of May. Meanwhile, according to the FBS data, in the first eleven months (July-May) of the current financial year 2009-10, CPI-based inflation was recorded at 11.64 percent as compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. At the same time, SPI inflation was registered at 13.17 per cent and WPI inflation at 12.16 percent in the period under review. It is pertinent to mention here that the Government had been pursuing tight monetary policy in order to control the soaring inflation, which is still hovering in the double digits. Economists believed that the inflation would further increase in the next fiscal year as the Government reduced the subsidies and increased the rate of GST by one per cent. The break-up of CPI-based general inflation (13.07 percent in May 2010) illustrated that apart from 14.81 percent food inflation, apparel, textile and footwear inflation soared by 26.60 percent in May 2010 over the same period of the last year. Similarly, house rents were increased by 8.75 percent. The fuel prices went up by 10.48 percent, household, furniture and equipment by 15.84 percent, recreation and entertainment up by 14.51 percent, education became expensive by 8.40 percent, cleaning and laundry rates swelled by 9.20 percent and Medicare rates shot up by 9.19 percent, while rates for transport and communication went up by 18.65 per cent. If we compare the prices of main kitchen commodities in May with their prices in April, the increase in rates is as follows: potatoes 22.95 percent, egg 11.64 percent, jam tomato, pickle and vineger 6.82 percent, pulse mash 5.45 percent, beverages 5.19 percent, milk fresh 3.78 percent, milk powder 3.34 percent, fresh fruits 3.11 percent, pulse moong 2.98 percent, meat 2.62 percent, honey 2.36 percent, milk products 2.13 percent and dry fruits 0.92pc.