Pakistan: Milk price soars to PKR 210 per litre in Karachi

Karachi [Pakistan], May 5 (ANI): The price of milk at Karachi in fiscally-stressed Pakistan shot up to 10 per litre after the city's commissioner approved a hike, acceding to the demands of the Dairy Farmers Association, ARY News reported.
As per the commissioner's directives, the price of milk has surged by PKR 10 per litre, with shops in Karachi now selling milk at PKR 210 per litre.
Earlier speculations of a potential PKR 50 per litre increase in milk prices have loomed over the inflation-burdened citizens of Karachi, ARY News reported.
Mubasher Qadeer Abbasi, the president of Dairy Farmers Karachi, has indicated that an increase of PKR 50 per litre of milk is expected soon for the people of Karachi. Abbasi cited the high cost of milk production, soaring cattle prices, and government negligence as factors contributing to this imminent rise.
Abbasi stressed the urgency for the Karachi Commissioner to promptly issue a notification regarding the new prices aligned with the milk production costs.
He further emphasised that if the authorities do not announce the increase in milk prices by May 10, stakeholders will take matters into their own hands and raise prices after consensus.
Recently, the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) assessed the weekly inflation in Pakistan, revealing a one per cent decrease across combined consumption groups for the week ending May 2.
The SPI for this week within these groups is at 316.95 points, a drop from the previous week's 320.14 points, according to ARY News.
Compared to the same week last year, there's been a 24.37 per cent increase in the SPI for the combined consumption group this week. The weekly SPI, calculated with the base year 2015-16 = 100, covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items across all expenditure groups.
For the lowest consumption group, up to PKR 17,732, there was a decrease of 1.09 per cent, with the SPI dropping to 306.26 points from last week's 309.64 points, ARY News reported. (ANI)