Economic Survey: Food basket cost down to Rs2,937 in March

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Economic Survey for 2021 says the cost of food basket, providing 2,150 calories and 66gm protein per day increased from July 2020 (Rs2,976) till November 2020 (Rs3,339) and then declined to Rs2,937 in March this year. According to the survey released on Thursday, the cost of minimum food basket was calculated on the monthly basis by using food prices data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The average monthly cost of food basket during the financial year 2021 has been estimated at Rs3,059 (July-March FY2021).

As regards food availability, it says this focuses on the supply of sufficient quantity of foods. It is directly linked with the state of food and nutrition security. Being an agrarian country, Pakistan produces enough quantity of food for domestic consumption.

However, import and export fulfills the shortfall and excess respectively. The availability of major food items has been estimated and remained satisfactory during 2020-21 to fulfill the food demand of the population. The availability of calories through major food commodities is estimated 2,580 in 2020-21 as compared to 2,445 in 2019-20.