Pakistan July consumer inflation accelerates to 10.3%

Pakistan's consumer inflation rate accelerated to 10.3 per cent year-on-year in July, from 8.9 per cent a month earlier, driven by higher food and fuel prices, the Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, underlining the growing squeeze on household budgets.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which make up a third of the overall basket used to calculate inflation, rose 7.9 per cent with big jumps in the prices of staples including onions, pulses and sugar.

There was also a 143 per cent rise in gas prices and a 23 per cent rise in petrol prices from the same month a year earlier.