Weekly inflation up 1.24% due to uptick in prices of food items

ISLAMABAD: Weekly inflation for the combined group in the period ended on October 8 saw an increase of 1.24 per cent due to rising prices of essential food items, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) is calculated on the basis of the prices of 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.

According to data, the increase was reported due to a rise of one per cent or more in prices of essential commodities, including tomatoes, up 16.39pc; onions 12.78 pc; eggs 10.78pc; chicken 5.34pc; wheat flour bag 2.78pc; potatoes 2.64pc; moong pulse 1.21pc; and sugar 1.03pc.

On the other hand, a decrease was witnessed in the prices of bananas, down 2.17 pc; mash pulse 0.13pc and gur 0.04pc.

Earlier, on October 2, the PBS had issued a monthly review of inflation in the country, showing an increasing trend of 1.54 per cent in prices of commodities during September 2020. The PBS review showed that inflation remained at 9.04 per cent in September 2020 as compared to the corresponding month last year.

inflation stood at 8.85 pe rcent in the first three months of this fiscal year that is from July to September 2020 as compared to the same period of the previous year.