Weekly inflation up 0.22%

ISLAMABAD: Inflation based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the combined consumption group for the week ended on August 26 increased by 0.22 per cent due to an uptick in prices of essential food items, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.

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 0.22%.

This was mainly due to an increase in prices of chicken (9.52%), Masoor pulse (9.32%), onions (7.55%), garlic (5.21%), bananas (5.02%), Mash pulse (3.33%), eggs (2.86%), Gram pulse (2.85%), mustard oil (2.02%) and vegetable ghee 1 Kg (1.80%) with a joint impact of (0.64%) in the overall SPI for combined group of (0.22%).

On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (29.88%), LPG (2.63%) and potatoes (2.11%).

Out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.15%) items increased while those of 5 (9.80%) items decreased and rates of 24 (47.05%) items remained constant.

The year on year trend showed an increase of 12.67% with the prices of most of the items increasing, mainly, LPG (57.28%), electricity for Q1 (46.55%), chicken (38.24%), vegetable ghee 1 Kg (37.90%), mustard oil (36.72%), vegetable ghee 2.5Kg (36.28%), chilies powder (35.71%), cooking oil 5 liter (34.84%), eggs (33.81%), washing soap (21.72%) and match box (21.51%), while a major decrease was observed in the prices of potatoes (25.43%), moong pulse (19.17%) and tomatoes (6.66%).