By Asma Kundi
ISLAMABAD: Inflation continues to make holes in pockets of Pakistani consumers who continue to reel under the burden of soaring prices of essential commodities including meat, vegetables and fruit.
According to the weekly data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), onions, chicken, cooking oil and a sharp increase in fuel prices were the main drivers of price increases in the previous week.
According to the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), which measures short-term inflation, the prices of commodities increased from 34.83 per cent the week before to 38.42 per cent for the week ended February 16 on an annual basis.
Highest inflation in country’s history
Talking to World Echo News, Nauman Shiekh said, “We have never seen such high inflation in the country’s history. Every food item is getting out of reach of the poor people. It has become impossible for us to eat three time a day.”
Nauman, who was buying vegetables from a stall in the Abpara market, said he earns hardly Rs30,000 a month. He said salaries in the private sector are not increased compared to inflation. “Shopkeepers charge the high rate for food items, not following the official rate list and unfortunately, there is no check because no one cares for poor in this country,” he added.
According to official figures, the 2.89 per cent weekly reading is the largest since October 27, 2022 when prices increased by 4.13 per cent per week.
The items whose costs rose the greatest during the reviewed week compared to the prior year were onions (up 433.4%), chicken (101.9%), fuel (81.4%), eggs (81.2%), Irri-6/9 rice (74.1%), broken basmati rice (73%) and bananas (up 68.4%). (67.7pc).
On a weekly basis, the highest increase was witnessed in the prices of vegetable ghee 1kg (8.02pc), petrol (8.82pc), diesel (6.49pc), chicken (7.49pc), cooking oil 5 liters (8.65pc), and bananas (8.01pc).
The products whose prices decreased compared to the last week were flour (-0.1pc), tomatoes (-14.27pc), onions (-13.48pc), eggs (-4.24pc), and garlic (-2.1pc).
The official data showed that the SPI increased by 2.94 pc for the group with a monthly income of more than Rs44,175 and by 2.45pc for the lowest-income group (i.e., people earning below Rs17,732 per month).
During the past few months, Pakistan has been at the grips of decades-high inflation. In January, annual inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) spiked 27.55pc, the highest increase since May 1975.
