KARACHI: Devastating floods in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province may cause inflation to surge in the coming days, financial experts and animal traders warned this week, with the deluges killing thousands of livestock, triggering supply disruptions.
Pakistan is an agrarian economy and has a total number of livestock amounting to 251.3 million. This includes 56 million cows, 48 million buffalos, 45 million sheep, 96 million goats, 1.5 million camels and 4.8 million asses, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ latest agriculture census.
The South Asian country’s richest, breadbasket province of Punjab has been reeling from floods since late August. Heavy monsoon rains and excess waters released by India have caused rivers in the province to swell, killing at least 56 and inundating over 4,000 villages. Since Jun. 26, floods have killed more than 6,180 livestock, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
In Punjab, while only 121 livestock have perished since Jun. 26, rescue teams have evacuated over 1.5 million livestock since late August to Sept. 7, according to data provided by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General Irfan Ali Kathia. The damage to livestock has disrupted the supply chain, threatened to diminish meat exports and caused food prices to push up.
