Pakistan’s headline inflation rose to 11.7% year-on-year (YoY) in May 2026, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday.
“This is the highest reading since June 2024,” said Arif Habib Limited (AHL).
The latest inflation figure marks an increase from 10.9% recorded in April 2026 and is significantly higher than the 3.5% registered in May 2025.
On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, consumer prices increased by 0.5% in May 2026, compared with a 2.5% rise in April, while prices had declined by 0.2% in May last year.
For the first eleven months of FY26, average inflation stood at 6.69%, compared with 4.61% during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
Urban inflation, measured through the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose by 11.8% YoY in May 2026, up from 11.1% in April and 3.5% in May 2025. On a monthly basis, urban inflation increased by 0.7%, compared with 2.7% in the previous month and 0.1% in May last year.
Meanwhile, rural CPI inflation reached 11.5% YoY in May 2026, compared with 10.6% in April and 3.4% a year earlier. On a monthly basis, rural inflation increased by 0.3%, against 2.1% in April, while it had declined by 0.5% in May 2025.
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) recorded a 12.0% YoY increase in May 2026, compared with 10.1% in April and a 0.6% decline in the same month last year. On a monthly basis, SPI inflation rose by 0.7%, lower than the 2.0% increase recorded in April, while it had fallen by 1.0% in May 2025.
The inflation uptick follows the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) decision in April to raise its policy rate by 100 basis points (bps) to 11.50%, marking the first rate increase in nearly three years.
