ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), a key measure of weekly inflation, experienced a rise of 1.16% in the week ending on Thursday (December 7), reported Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The SPI for this period reached 311.78 points, compared to the previous week’s 308.20 points, according to PBS data.
In comparison to the corresponding week of the previous year, the SPI for the combined consumption group saw a significant increase of 42.68% during the reviewed week.
Covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups, the weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 = 100 revealed diverse trends within different consumption brackets. For the lowest consumption group (up to Rs 17,732), there was a decrease of 0.17%, settling at 306.59 points from the previous week’s 307.11 points.
Within various consumption groups, prices exhibited mixed movements. For the groups from Rs 17,732-22,888, there was a decrease of 0.14%, while groups from Rs 22,889-29,517, Rs 29,518-44,175, and above Rs 44,175 witnessed increases of 0.96%, 1.27%, and 1.65%, respectively.
Weekly Inflation and Items
During the week, out of 51 items, 15 items (29.41%) experienced price increases, 14 items (27.45%) saw decreases, and 22 items (43.14%) remained stable.
Items that recorded a decrease in average prices on a week-on-week basis included tomatoes (9.82%), potatoes (4.34%), chicken (2.99%), tea packet (2.58%), diesel (2.31%), rice basmati broken (2.00%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.43%), cooking oil 5 liters (0.38%), wheat flour (0.35%), pulse gram (0.27%), and vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.16%).
Items that saw an increase in average prices on a week-on-week basis included onions (8.42%), eggs (2.52%), electricity charges for Q1 (2.03%), pulse moong (0.88%), sugar (0.84%), bananas (0.67%), firewood (0.55%), LPG (0.42%), tea prepared (0.37%), pulse masoor (0.10%), mustard oil (0.09%), and curd (0.02%).
On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, items that experienced a decrease in prices included onions (22.59%), tomatoes (6.97%), mustard oil (4.04%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (3.00%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (1.30%), and bananas (0.01%).
Commodities that recorded an increase in average prices on a YoY basis included gas charges for Q1 (1108.59%), cigarettes (94.20%), wheat flour (85.05%), chilies powder (81.74%), garlic (73.09%), rice basmati broken (68.53%), rice Irri 6/9 (60.94%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), gents sandal (53.37%), gur (50.56%), tea packet (44.65%), and pulse mash (44.04%).
