Pakistan's utility costs have increased as a result of the country's severe economic predicament. In particular, the cost of cooking and other essentials has recently increased to unforeseen levels. It already tried to reach an agreement with the IMF.

As Pakistan continues to recover from record-breaking floods that claimed 1,739 lives and destroyed 2 million homes last year, the increasing prices coincide with a stalemate in discussions between the IMF and Pakistan. This is a setback for Shehbaz Sharif's administration.

A litre of unpackaged milk in Pakistan is now priced at PKR 210, up from PKR 190 earlier, according to a report by Dawn. Chicken meat is now priced at PKR 700–780 per kilogramme, up from PKR 620–650 per kg the previous week.

Consumers now pay PKR 480–500 per kg for live broiler chicken after a PKR 30–40 per kg price increase.

In Karachi, food costs have been growing significantly. The report states that up until last week, chicken was sold for PKR 390-440 per kg, and in the final week of January, it was sold for PKR 380-420 per kg.

The study included quotes from a number of wholesalers and dairy farmers who blamed milk suppliers and dealers for the increase in product costs.

They claimed that because merchants were not getting milk at informed wholesale prices, it was difficult for them to sell milk at a controlled rate after buying it at higher prices.

According to Waheed Gaddi, media coordinator for the Karachi Milk Retailers Association, dairy producers increased the price of milk from its official rate of PKR 163 per litre, which was established on December 16, 2022, to PKR 183 per litre on February 11.

Waheed continued by saying that milk vendors in Karachi had two options: purchase milk at a greater cost or discontinue purchasing and reselling milk.

Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui, general secretary of the Sindh Poultry Wholesalers Association, claimed that stores charged clients at their discretion in the case of poultry. Insufficient to cover a month's worth of imports, Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves have dropped to their lowest level since 1998, at roughly $3 billion, and the rupee has hit a new low. Additionally, inflation has never been higher.