Inflation breaks another record in Pakistan, jumps to 44.58pc

ISLAMABAD: The weekly review of the sensitive price index (SPI) on Friday highlighted a record increase in inflation upto 44.58 percent on a year-on-year basis in August, the data shared by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

According to the PBS, the SPI for the week ended on August 25 recorded an increase of 1.83, bring the year-on-year inflation to an all-time high of 44.58 percent. It showed that during the week, out of 51 items, prices of 23 of them increased, seven decreased while 21 remained stable.

The items that saw hike in prices included tomatoes 43.09 percent, onions 41.13 percent, potatoes 6.32 percent, eggs 3.43 percent, garlic 2.23 percent, powdered milk 1.53 percent and pulse mash 1.12 percent. The non-food items that saw hike in prices included cigarettes 2.26 percent and LPG 1.95 percent.

On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of pulse masoor 1.18 percent,one kilogram packet of vegetable ghee one percent, bananas 0.61 percent, cooking oil 0.51 percent, sugar 0.28 percent and mustard oil 0.07 percent.

The PBS report shared that the year on year trend depicted an increase of 44.58 percent which included a hike in prices of tomatoes by 178.10 percent, onions 155.14 percent, diesel 108.77 percent, petrol 94.53 percent, pulse masoor 90.74 percent, cooking oil 70.61 percent, mustard oil 67.58 percent, vegetable ghee 64.71 percent, washing soap 63.27 percent, electricity for first quarter by 63.03 percent, chicken 55.76 percent and pulse gram 55.07 percent.

A decrease was observed in the prices of chilies powder 43.42 percent, sugar 16.90 percent and gur 1.21 percent.