Weekly inflation in Pakistan up by 4 percent

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed an increase of 4.07 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on July 24, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 329.09 points as compared to 316.23 points during the past week, according to the PBS data.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 2.22 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 3.98 per cent and going up to 317.34 points this week from last week’s 305.19 points.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,733 to 22,888, Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175, increased by 5.26 percent, 4.44 percent,3.70 percent and 3.03 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 14 (27.45%) items increased, 12 (23.53%) items decreased and 25 (49.02%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded major increase in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included Gas Charges for Q1 (29.85%), Tomatoes (22.93%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (21.46%), Eggs (3.96%), Garlic (1.39%), Cigarettes (0.51%), Beef (0.46%), Rice Basmati Broken (0.45%), Powdered Milk (0.29%), Energy Saver (0.23%), Curd (0.17%) and Milk Fresh (0.16%).

The commodities which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included Chicken (7.95%), Sugar (4.25%), Onions (3.05%), Bananas (2.81%), LPG (2.09%), Potatoes (1.82%), Wheat Flour (1.19%), Pulse Moong (0.43%) and Pulse Gram (0.32%).

Year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed increase included Ladies Sandal (55.62%), Gas Charges for Q1 (29.85%), Sugar (21.89%), Pulse Moong (16.42%), Beef (14.08%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (12.46%), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (12.17%), Gur (11.30%), Eggs (10.70%), Firewood (10.52%), Cooked Daal (9.47%) and Lawn Printed (7.32%).

The commodities which recorded a decrease in their average prices on year-on-year basis included Onions (49.13%), Tomatoes (30.20%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (24.23%), Garlic (23.64%), Wheat Flour (23.21%), Pulse Mash (20.76%), Tea Lipton (17.93%), Potatoes (15.11%), Pulse Masoor (8.86%) and Petrol (1.24%).