Islamabad: Pakistan's inflation has reached a two-year high by soaring to 12.96 per cent in the first month of 2022, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday.

Dawn newspaper citing PBS data reported that 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 0.39 per cent compared to December.

In January 2020, inflation had risen to 14.6 per cent in the country, the publication reported, adding that the average inflation rate between July 2021 to January 2022 stood at 10.26 per cent.

Dawn quoting Fahad Rauf, the head of research at Ismail Iqbal Securities Ltd, reported that an increase in petroleum prices along with the house rent revision was going to push up inflation numbers for January.

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

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

While non-food inflation in Pakistan increased to 12.8 per cent year-on-year in urban areas and 13.9 per cent year-on-year in rural areas, the PBS data reported.

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