Pakistan's weekly inflation drops by 0.11 percent

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), decreased by 0.11 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on June 12, 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 309.51 points as compared to 309.85 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 a decrease of 1.41 per cent.

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

The SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs 17,732 witnessed an increase of 0.15 per cent and went up to 299.44 points from last week’s 298.99 points while consumption group of Rs 17,732 to 22,888 also increased by 0.04.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175, came down to 0.03 percent, 0.10 percent and 0.18 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 15 (29.41%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 27 (52.94%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included Chicken (11.32%), Garlic (5.69%), Pulse Mash (1.14%), Pulse Masoor (0.43%), Pulse Gram (0.21%), Cooking Oil 5 litre & Vegetable Ghee 2.5kg (0.20%) each, Wheat Flour (0.05%) and LPG (0.02%).

The commodities which recorded major increase in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included Tomatoes (19.73%), Potatoes (9.11%), Onions (3.23%), Bananas (2.25%), Powdered Milk (0.73%), Eggs (0.67%), Gur (0.52%), Curd & Rice Basmati Broken (0.25%) each, Vegetable Ghee 1kg (0.20%), Sugar (0.18%) and Pulse Moong (0.15%).

Year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included Onions (61.86%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (41.63%), Garlic (30.99%), Tomatoes (22.87%), Pulse Mash (19.18%), Tea Lipton (17.93%), Potatoes (16.49%), Wheat Flour (14.10%), Chicken (8.04%), Pulse Masoor (6.13%), Diesel (5.68%) and Petrol (5.41%).

The commodities which recorded a decrease in their average prices on year-on-year basis included Ladies Sandal (55.62%), Eggs (31.41%), Pulse Moong (30.53%), Powdered Milk (24.73%), Sugar (23.76%), Bananas (16.18%), Beef (15.75%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5Kg (13.33%), Vegetable Ghee 1Kg (12.71%), Firewood (10.81%), Lawn (10.45%) and Cooked Daal (9.90%).