KARACHI: Pakistan’s consumer price index in February rose 23.1% from the same month last year, marking the slowest annual inflation rate since June 2022, data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. The country has been battling skyrocketing inflation, which hit an all-time high of 38% annually last May, driven in part by new tax measures the government imposed to meet demands from the International Monetary Fund. Islamabad’s financing agreement with the IMF expires on April 11. On a monthly basis, the February CPI was unchanged, having increased every month since the fiscal year began last July. Pakistan’s Finance Ministry projected in a monthly report on Thursday that inflation would be around 24.5%-25.5% in February, with expectations to decline further to 23.5%-24.5% in March as the crop and commodity supply situation improves. The annual CPI for January stood at 28.3%. February’s improvement was partly due to base effects. In January, Pakistan’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 22% for the fifth consecutive policy meeting and raised its full-year inflation projections. The State Bank of Pakistan governor said the increase in its average inflation forecast for the fiscal year ending in June to 23%-25% from a previous projection of 20%-22% was due to rising gas and electricity prices.