Pakistan's weekly inflation falls 0.52pc

Pakistan’s short-term inflation decreased by 0.52% WoW during the week ended September 19, 2024, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

PBS calculates short-term inflation using the sensitive price indicator (SPI) on a weekly basis to assess the price movement of essential commodities at shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country.

SPI comprises of 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the week, out of these items, prices of 17 (33.34%) items increased, 15 (29.41%) items decreased and 19 (37.25%) items remained stable.

On a weekly basis, a major decrease was observed in the prices of Diesel (5.00%), Onions (4.45%), Petrol (3.88%), Tomatoes (1.93%), and Sugar (0.70%).

Meanwhile, an increase was observed in the prices of Chicken (1.49%), Pulse Gram (0.83%), Cooked Daal (0.81%), Shirting (0.74%), and Cooked Beef (0.72%).

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all quantiles ranging -0.42% and -0.58%.

The lowest income group experienced a weekly fall of 0.42%, while the highest income group experienced a fall of 0.58%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 9.14% and 16.09%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group increased by 9.14% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 11.02%.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4,643 per 50 kg bag which is 0.52% lower than last week’s price, while 23.02% higher when compared to last year.

Meanwhile, the average Cement price rose to Rs1,466 per 50 kg bag, which is 0.56% lower than the previous week and 22.85% higher than prices last year.