Thursday, November 21, 2019

Inflation outpaces government target

The consumer price rise has outpaced the government’s target, though budget has vowed to tame inflation at 6 per cent in the current fiscal year 2019-20.
According to ‘Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation of Nepal – based on three months’ data of 2019-20 – released by the central bank today, the average inflation, as measured in consumer price index (CPI), stood at 6.44 per cent in the first three months of the current fiscal year.
According to the central bank data, the year-on-year consumer price inflation jumped to 6.21 per cent in mid-October 2019 compared to 4.68 per cent a year ago. “Food and beverage inflation stood at 7.04 per cent whereas non-food and service inflation stood at 5.55 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year,” it reads, adding that vegetable inflation rose by 16.83 per cent, while meat and fish prices jumped by 8.31 per cent.
The rising consumer prices in India has added the inflationary pressure to domestic market as Nepal imports everything including inflation from India. The consumer price inflation has reached a 16-month high of 4.62 per cent in India.
Likewise, rising salary and wages have also driven up inflation in recent months. “The year-on-year salary and wage rate index increased by 12.07 per cent in the first quarter compared to 8.73 per cent a year ago,” the report reads, adding that salary index and wage rate index increased by 13.56 per cent and 11.67 per cent, respectively.

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