Inflationary Crisis.

The inflationary crisis continues to escalate as on Friday the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) announced that weekly inflation reached 46.65 percent on an annual basis during the ongoing week, indicating an unprecedented price hike experienced by low- and middle-income consumers across the country during the holy month of Ramazan. This Ramazan will prove to be incredibly testing for the citizenry as a result of food prices skyrocketing due to increased demand, energy prices at unbearable levels, and new taxes carving out a large slice from household incomes.

The situation is exceptionally dire as the PBS statistics reveal that a 20-kilogram bag of flour, one of the most commonly consumed commodities, has witnessed an increase in price from Rs1,817 to Rs2,586. The flour bag was available for Rs1,172 last year in March. According to experts, inflation has escalated further due to a number of factors, including rising demand for food items in Ramadan and depreciation of Pakistan's national currency. In addition, predictions suggest that we can expect inflationary pressures to get progressively worse over the remainder of the month.

Consumers across the country are complaining about spending bigger chunks of their income on food items in recent...