KARACHI - Pakistan's consumer price inflation rate rose to 8.7% year on year in February, the country's bureau of statistics said on Monday, up from the 5.65% recorded the previous month.
The average inflation rate for the seven months of the current financial year was registered at 8.25% year on year, the bureau said in a statement on its website.
Analysts say the jump in the inflation figure from January, when it clocked a two-year low, was higher than expected but it remained in line with the central bank's forecast range and would not spur immediate policy reaction.
"We expect interest rates to remain unchanged in the incoming monetary policy in March," Saad Hashemy, executive director of financial services group BMA Capital, told Reuters.
Pakistan's central bank had raised interest rates up to 13.25% to contain inflation early last year. However, after the global pandemic hit, the rate was slashed aggressively, coming down 625 basis points to 7%, in order to spur economic activity.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Additional reporting by Syed Raza Hassan; Editing by Toby Chopra and Steve Orlofsky) ((GibranNaiyyar.Peshimam@thomsonreuters.com; +923018217003;))
