Inflation chops down purchasing power

Skyrocketing prices have made it almost next to impossible for a common man to celebrate Eid as the traditional hustle and bustle, as the markets remained far less as compared to last few years.

Eid preparations always start with the passage of first ten days of Ramazan as people started visited to the markets for Eid shopping, but still no such traditional rush was witnessed in the markets.

The prices of basic food commodities have increased to a extent that it has reduced the purchasing power of the people and they have no more choice to reduce their Eid shopping comparing to the last year.

During a visit in Lahore’s major markets, it was observed that people prefer to visit to markets like Anarkali Bazar, Ichraa Market, Shadman Market, Shahalmi market and commercial markets as they think that goods are available there at cheaper rates comparing to other markets of the provincial capital.

Amna Haq, a housewife, at Ichraa Bazar, said that she has come from Okara to purchase clothes and other goods, as the prices of clothes are cheaper here.

She said that it is very difficult for me to run the expenditure of home in the month of Ramazan, as the income is low comparing to the expenditures. She further told that this year the Eid celebrations would be affected because of inflation tide.

Majeed Ur Rehman a visitor, at Anarkali Market told that this year he would buy clothes and shoes only for his children neither for himself nor for his wife as he has made lot of expenditures in the month of Ramazan. He said that I am a government servant, earning Rs 12,000 per month, which is not enough for two-time meals, paying utility bills, and fares of the public transport. In just fifteen days of this month I had spend all of my salary and now borrowed money from my friend for Eid shopping for my children.

Inflation has definitely impacted Eid spending, one young woman, in her late 20s, out on a late night shopping excursion with her husband told that she normally gets three or four outfits made for Eid. "This year, I only got two. I’ve basically cut down my Eid purchases by about half, because of inflation."

With food inflation even higher, many find their Eid shopping budgets further constrained. "My household expenditure has doubled over the last six months," a retired college professor from Punjab University said. "But my retirement funds are the same as before. There’s no question of getting new curtains this year."

According to reports coming in from around the country, there is a 30-40 percent decline compared to last year in the sales of the most popular commodities associated with Eid, primarily clothes and shoes, and secondly minor home improvements. Furniture, curtain and carpet sales are also reportedly down by 50-60 percent from last year, despite announcement of huge sales.

"Things are 50 percent more expensive," said a young man, one of the hundreds who set up temporary roadside stalls every Ramadan for an Eid essential: colourful, translucent glass bangle sets to match new outfits.

Normally, such stalls would be thronged until the wee hours. Now, naked overhead light bulbs shine on the bangles glittering in their cardboard boxes on the cloth-covered table and behind it, the young salesmen, experts at coaxing the fragile bangles onto girls’ arms, sit idly. "Things are more expensive, and our customers have decreased by about half," one young man said.

Faisal sells artificial jewellery from a miniscule shop with barely enough standing space, in a crowded passage-way in a shopping plaza, a space he rents for Rs 10,000 a month. "There are more people who just come and look without buying than before," he said, handing over a set of four imitation silver bangles with dangling pearls to a young girl for Rs 150. "But I will be okay."

Asked how he feels about being crammed into this tiny shop in this passage-way with no ventilation or exit routes in case of an emergency situation, he smiles and shrugs. "Everything just carries on. It is all up to Allah, just like this country."

An imitation jewellery seller at Origa Complex, a multi-storey plaza in a middle-class locality, expects to gross Rs 150,000 in profits at the end of the two-week Eid season.

A slightly-built youngster called Chinkoo, selling embroidered bags and purses in a warren of shop-lined passageways in the perennially under-construction Shopping Mall, thought the decline in customers may have to do with the number of shopping plazas and malls that have cropped up. "There are many more places to go and shop now, so people don’t crowd the same old places anymore," he conjectured.

However, security concerns may also be behind the relatively fewer crowds thronging the markets in the pre-Eid season.

"I think it’s a combination of inflation and the security situation," said Adam, the young manager of a shop selling potato chips flavoured with various spices.