Pakistan's weekly inflation drops by 1pc

KARACHI: The weekly inflation evaluated by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), showed a decrease of one percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on May 02, ARY News reported on Friday, citing data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The SPI for the current week within the aforementioned group stands at 316.95 points, down from 320.14 points recorded in the previous week.

In comparison to the corresponding week of the previous year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the current week saw a rise of 24.37 percent. The weekly SPI, calculated with the base year 2015-16 =100, encompasses 17 urban centers and 51 essential items across all expenditure groups.

For the lowest consumption group, up to Rs. 17,732, there was a decrease of 1.09 percent, with the SPI dropping to 306.26 points from last week’s 309.64 points.

Similarly, the SPI for consumption groups ranging from Rs. 17,732-22,888, Rs. 22,889-29,517, Rs. 29,518-44,175, and above Rs. 44,175, decreased by 1.12 percent, 1.02 percent, 1.04 percent, and 0.95 percent respectively.

Throughout the week, out of the 51 items, prices of 15 items (29.42 percent) increased, 18 items (35.29 percent) decreased, and 18 items (35.29 percent) remained stable.

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included tomatoes (22.05 percent), chicken (8.03 percent), onions (7.71 percent), wheat flour (6.88 percent), bananas (5.25 percent), diesel (2.89 percent), chilies powder (2.59 percent), LPG (2.36 percent), petrol (1.84 percent), pulse masoor (1.25 percent) and pulse moong (0.90 percent).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included potatoes (6.06 percent), salt powder (0.91 percent), garlic (0.85 percent), powder milk (0.70 percent), mutton (0.65 percent), eggs (0.53 percent), cigarettes (0.51 percent), curd (0.46 percent) and beef (0.45 percent).

On Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included bananas (37.76 percent), wheat flour (23.15 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (20.45 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (17.10 percent), vegetable ghee 1 kg (16.75 percent), mustard oil (12.74 percent), eggs (10.46 percent), LPG (8.52 percent), chicken (3.99 percent) and diesel (2.04 percent).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included gas charges for Q1 ( 570.00 percent), onions (145.15 percent), tomatoes (79.43 percent), garlic (72.46 percent), chilies powder (71.96 percent), salt powder (33.07 percent), energy saver (29.83 percent), shirting (29.71 percent), gents sandal (25.01 percent), pulse mash (24.72 percent), gur (24.49 percent) and beef (23.96 percent).