ISLAMABAD: While playing down falling industrial production and revenue shortfalls in the first seven months (July-January) of 2024-25, the government on Thursday hinted at a spike in the consumer price index next month.

“Inflation is anticipated to remain within the range of 2-3pc for February. However, there are prospects of a slight increase to 3-4pc by March,” said the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in its Monthly Economic Update & Outlook for February, released on Thursday.

Overall, the MoF said the national “economy continued to demonstrate positive developments during July-January FY25, as evidenced by improvements in key economic indicators”. Export-oriented industries grew despite the slow recovery in the Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector.

The MoF said the CPI inflation was recorded at 2.4pc on a YoY basis in January compared to 4.1pc in the previous month and 28.3pc in January 2024. “On MoM basis, CPI slightly increased by 0.2pc in January compared to an increase of........

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