Weekly inflation edges up

ISLAMABAD: Inflation based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the combined consumption group for the week ended on August 5 increased by 0.12% due to an uptick in prices of essential food items, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday.

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) that is calculated on the basis of the prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets across 17 cities of the country recorded an increase of 0.03%.

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This was mainly due to an increase in prices of LPG (up 3.67%) and Petrol (1.44%).

On the other hand a decrease was recorded in the prices of tomatoes (18.00%), bananas (8.13%), chicken (3.86%), eggs (3.53%), Moong pulse (2.11%), onions (1.37%), potatoes (0.37%), Mash pulse (0.24%), rice (0.16%), wheat flour bag (0.10%) and sugar (0.05%).

Out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.33%) items increased while those of 11 (21.56%) items decreased and rates of 23 (45.1%) items remained constant.

The year on year trend showed an increase of 12.40% in inflation with prices of most of the essential items increasing, mainly, electricity for Q1 (60.81%), LPG (57.99%), mustard oil (35.89%), chilies powder (35.71%), vegetable ghee 1 Kg (33.89%), vegetable ghee 2.5Kg (32.45%), cooking oil 5 liter (32.26%), and match box (21.51%), while a major decrease was observed in the prices of potatoes (23.42%), Moong pulse (20.73%), tomatoes (4.19%) and chicken (2.13%).