The prices of consumer goods continued their upward trajectory in the first month of 2022 and reached a two-year high as inflation shot up to 12.96 percent, said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

As per the PBS data, the year-on-year inflation during the last month — measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — was the highest since January 2020 while the month-on-month inflation increased to 0.39pc compared to December. In January 2020, inflation had risen to 14.6pc.

Overall, the increase in inflation was driven by transport, which shot up to 23.05pc and housing and utilities which rose to 15.53pc year-on-year.

Meanwhile, food inflation in urban areas increased to 13.57pc on a year-on-year basis while it saw a decrease of 1.06pc on a month-on-month basis. In contrast, food inflation in rural areas saw a slightly lower rise, increasing to 12.01pc YoY and 0.23pc MoM.

Non-food inflation increased to 12.8pc YoY in urban areas and 13.9pc YoY in rural areas.

The average inflation for the six-month period between July and December 2021 rose to 9.81pc on a yearly basis.

After surging to 12.4pc in February 2020, inflation had been on the decline — helped by a drop in prices of agricultural products. However, the massive spike in oil prices earlier in 2021 reversed this trend.