Pakistan’s weekly inflation jumps to 27.5 per cent

The short-term inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), continues to rise with a year-on-year increase of 27.57 per cent for the week ending on Aug 17, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) official data showed Friday.

On a week-on-week basis, the short-term inflation, rose 0.78pc, and shows no signs of slowing down, causing concern for economists and consumers alike.

According to data, the Combined Index was at 275.57 compared to 273.43 on August 10, 2023, while the index was recorded at 216.02 a year ago, on Aug 18, 2022.

Out of 51 items, the average price of 32 items increased, 7 items decreased, and 12 items remained stable.

During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were: Chillies Powder (7.58%), Rice Irri-6/9 (7.48%), Garlic (5.06%), Sugar (4.02%), Gur (3.23%), Rice Basmati Broken (3.06%), Chicken (2.83%) and Bananas (2.72%), non-food items, Diesel (7.29%) and Petrol (6.40%).

On the other hand, the decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (13.60%), Cooking Oil 5 litre (1.65%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 kg (0.85%), Vegetable Ghee 1 kg (0.43%), Firewood (0.42%), Mustard Oil (0.23%) and Wheat Flour (0.19%).