Pakistan's weekly inflation dips by 0.79 percent

ISLAMABAD: The weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed a decrease of 0.79 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on April 18, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to the PBS data, during the week, out of 51 items, prices of 22 items increased, 11 items decreased and 18 items remained stable.

The items that recorded an increase in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included potatoes (17.07 %), tomatoes (12.67%), chicken (11.60%), diesel (2.87%), Sugar (1.10%), Garlic (2.88%), Beef (2.56%).

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included Flour (8.97%), bananas (8.67%), eggs (6.67%), onions (1.40%), cooking oil (0.45%), Ghee (0.34%), and LPG (2.84%).

It is worth mentioning here that the foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) rose by 14.4 million to $8.055 billion in the week ending April 12, the State Bank of Pakistan said.

“During the week, SBP has executed the repayment of US$ 1 billion maturing Pakistan’s International Bond (principal plus interest),” it said in a weekly statement.

However, the country’s total reserves fell by $68 million to $13.374 billion. Similarly, the reserves of commercial banks decreased by $82 million to $5.319 billion.

Pakistan and the IMF last month reached a staff-level agreement on the second and last review of the $3 billion stand-by arrangement, which, if cleared by the global lender’s board, will release about $1.1 billion to the country.