ISLAMABAD: In order to effectively monitor the cost of necessities, the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) instructed provincial chief secretaries on Tuesday to carry out frequent price assessments at the district level in coordination with the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who convened the NPMC meeting, also emphasized the importance of working closely with the PBS to prevent duplication of effort in order to make data-driven decisions and effectively regulate prices.
According to a formal statement, the minister emphasized how crucial it is to modify transportation rates to account for the slowdown in inflation and guarantee that the general public gains from lower transportation expenses in all markets.
With a mandate to create a database for chief ministers to review, the group looked at differences in wholesale and retail prices in different regions. At the municipal level, this program seeks to increase consumer pricing stability, reduce profiteering, and improve transparency.
Local market committees were directed to actively monitor supply and demand in order to guarantee the availability of key commodities.
To prevent shortages, each deputy commissioner has been assigned the responsibility of supervising district-level inventory.
The minister reaffirmed how important data analytics are to planning for the future. In order to make well-informed judgments for price stability and productivity gains across industries, he asked all provincial and federal authorities to make use of PBS data. He pointed out that attaining economic resilience and assisting the public in the face of inflationary pressures depend on effective data usage.
Mr. Ahsan ordered that proactive demand and stock availability evaluations be carried out for crucial times, particularly during Eidul Azha and Ramadan, in order to reduce price spikes. In order to avoid market disruptions, he emphasized that planning for these periods of strong demand should account for possible supply challenges.
He emphasized the need of a well-organized agricultural business plan and called for the setting of national production goals that are in line with both export potential and home demand. Like in wealthy nations, each crop should have a defined business plan with yearly goals.
He suggested hiring a professional agriculture economist to direct crop planning and economic projections since he understood the need for specialized knowledge. In order to build Pakistani brands for both home and foreign markets, he also advocated for increasing value addition in dairy and agricultural products, especially in high-potential goods like milk, fish, mangoes, and chicken.
Using information from the PBS on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the committee examined recent inflation data, with a focus on food and critical goods.
In October, non-perishable food items saw a 1.46 percent drop from October 2023 and a 1.01 percent controlled increase from the previous month.
Prices for cooking oil (10.2pc), sugar (9.15pc), and wheat flour (34.73%) also saw significant drops. Overall, food inflation shows a high degree of price stability, falling from 28.9 percent in October 2023 to 2.7 percent in urban areas and 0.6 percent in rural areas.
