Pakistan inflation hits 48-year high as supplies jammed at ports

Foreign currency reserves have dwindled to a nine-year low of $3.68 billion

Pakistan’s inflation quickened to the fastest in almost 48 years in January as thousands of containers of food items, raw materials and equipment are stuck in ports after the cash-strapped government curtailed imports.

Consumer prices rose 27.55 per cent from a year earlier, according to data released by the statistics department on Wednesday. That compares with a median estimate for a 25.9 per cent gain in a Bloomberg survey and a 24.47 per cent jump in December. Inflation is at the highest since May 1975, according to central bank data.

The latest reading comes a week after the State Bank of Pakistan