Pakistan’s consumer inflation rate has been slowed to 4.1 percent in December.

Daily Khaleej Times while quoting Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported that it is the lowest in more than six and a half years.

The report said that Pakistan is navigating a challenging economic recovery path buttressed by a 7 billion dollar facility from International Monetary Fund granted in September last year.

The finance ministry said that the annual inflation rate was expected to hold in the range of 4-5 per cent in the final month of the year. Annual inflation had already slowed to 4.9 percent in November, largely due to a high base a year earlier, coming in below the government’s forecast and significantly lower than a multi-decade high of around 40 per cent in May 2023.

The State Bank of Pakistan cut its key policy rate by 200 basis points to 13 per cent in December and it was the fifth straight reduction since June. This was aimed to bring cumulative rate cuts for 2024 to 900 basis points and making it one of the most aggressive emerging market central banks in the current easing cycle.

Inflation during the first half of the current fiscal year to end-June 2025 has averaged 7.22 per cent compared to 28.79 per cent in the year-earlier period.