The Economist, an international publication, has recently released the list of most expensive countries. According to that, Pakistan stands at number fourth on the list of 43 countries. The list has been compiled looking at the trajectory of inflation. It is because of this that Argentina ranks as the most expensive country, Pakistan as fourth, and India as sixteenth.
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Global Inflation Rates
The inflation rate in Pakistan is currently calculated at 9%. The rates of the top most expensive country and the second is significant; Argentina stands at 51.4% inflation rate while Turkey the second most expensive is at 19.6%. Brazil is at number 3 with 10.2% inflation. Considering the living standard Japan is able to give its citizens, the inflation rate being -0.4%, it is indeed noteworthy.
Detail on inflation in Pakistan
Pakistan Bureau Statistics (PBS) calculated an 8.4% inflation rate for the month of August in the data they released in October. It has now risen to 9% even though the government set the target for the ongoing fiscal year 2021-2022 at 8.5%. The year-on-year inflation might remain in double digits though.
According to the data by PBS, the inflation rate had increased for both urban and rural areas. In September, inflation was recorded at 9.1% for urban areas and 8.8% for rural. Specific to food, the inflation in urban areas rose to 10.8%. The food inflation in rural areas remained unchanged from the previous month.
Meanwhile, the non-food inflation was marked at 8.1% in urban areas and 8.5% in rural areas. This was a significant increase from September 2020 where the rates were 5% and 7.2% respectively. Moreover, the prices for clothing and footwear increased by 9.19% on average. And for transportation, the increase was by 9.11%. The electricity fare has also increased in the month of September, the surge is reported to be at 11.4%.
Fourth most expensive country but…
All these factors considered, the average inflation for the period July to September is recorded to be 8.58%. Given the goal of maintaining an 8.5%, one can say that the government is on track even if Pakistan is the fourth most expensive country.
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This comes as quite a shock because not even three months ago, the stats released by GoBankingRatesCompany stated Pakistan may just be the cheapest country to live in. The cost of living index for Pakistan was calculated at 18.58. The second country on the list, Afghanistan was at 24.51. It was followed by India with the index being 25.14. On the same scale, the most expensive countries to live in were: the Cayman Islands at 141.64, Bermuda at 138.22, Switzerland at 122.67, and Norway at 104.49.
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