Pakistan to buy 200,000 tons wheat from Russia to tame inflation

Pakistan plans to buy about 200,000 tons of wheat from Russia as part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s bid to control inflation by increasing supplies of essential commodities.

Islamabad will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with Moscow for the supply of the grain on a government-to-government basis, Pakistan’s wheat commissioner Imtiaz Ali Gopang said by phone. Shipments from Russia are likely to arrive by December after the federal cabinet approves the proposal, he said.

The Khan administration is trying to spur growth through monetary easing and incentives for construction, and making efforts to control inflation by facilitating imports of essential items such as wheat and sugar. The nation’s food price inflation surged 12.9% from a year earlier in August.

Pakistan, the world’s eighth-biggest wheat producer, has already imported about 430,000 tons so far this year to build strategic reserves of the grain and plug a 1.5-million-ton shortage, caused in part by damage to crops after heavy rains. Private importers have booked 1.09 million tons of wheat, which will be shipped in 18 vessels until January.