Weekly inflation up by 0.67pc in Pakistan

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), went up by 0.67 per cent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on November 21, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 324.11 points as compared to 321.94 points during the past week.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 4.92 per cent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs 17,732 witnessed increase of 0.91 per cent and went up to 318.40 points from last week’s 315.52 points in Pakistan.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,732 to 22,888; Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175, increased by 0.85 per cent, 0.72 per cent, 0.70 per cent and 0.61 per cent respectively.

During the weekly inflation, out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.33%) items increased, 11 (21.57%) items decreased and 23 (45.10%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included chicken (2.97%), pulse gram (1.70%), LPG (0.80%), pulse masoor (0.62%), rice basmati broken (0.40%), sugar (0.27%), wheat flour (0.25%), pulse mash (0.23%) and rice irri-6/9 (0.22%).

The commodities which recorded major increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included ladies sandal (55.62%), tomatoes (20.72%), potatoes (3.81%), garlic (3.42%), eggs (3.16%), vegetable ghee 1kg (2.30%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (1.73%), mustard oil (1.28%), onions (0.98%) and shirting (0.04%).

On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included wheat flour (35.49%), chilies powder (20.00%), diesel (13.92%), petrol (11.64%), tea packet (11.07%), rice basmati broken (8.25%), pulse masoor (7.21%), bread (5.99%), electricity charges for q1 (5.07%), sugar (3.67%) and cooking oil 5 litre (2.98%)

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included, ladies sandal (75.09%), pulse gram (70.95%), pulse moong (38.53%), powdered milk (25.74%), beef (23.79%), onions (21.05%), tomatoes (19.69%), garlic (16.08%), gas charges for Q1 ( 15.52%), shirting (15.27%), mutton (14.80%) and georgette (13.07%).