Short-Term Inflation in Pakistan Comes in at Just Under 4%

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) based inflation for the week ended January 2, 2024, increased by 3.97 percent on a year-on-year basis, according to the data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The year-on-year trend depicts an increase mainly due to an increase in the prices of Tomatoes (77.84 percent), Ladies Sandal (75.09 percent), Potatoes (66.63 percent), Pulse Gram (47.53 percent), Pulse Moong (30.73 percent), Powdered Milk (25.62 percent), Beef (23.94 percent), Garlic (17.82 percent), Gas Charges for Q1 (15.52 percent), Cooked Daal (15.10 percent), Shirting (14.36 percent) and Firewood (13.18 percent).  While major decrease was observed in the prices of Wheat Flour (36.12 percent), Onions (29.95 percent), Chilies Powder (20.00 percent), Eggs (15.78 percent), Electricity Charges for Q1 (13.92 percent), Pulse Masoor (11.24 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (8.42 percent), Diesel (6.39 percent), Bread (6.01 percent), Pulse Mash (5.98 percent) and Petrol (5.45 percent).  On the other hand, the SPI based inflation decreased by 0.26 percent on week-on-week basis due to a decrease in the prices of Tomatoes (13.48 percent), Electricity Charges for Q1 (7.48 percent), Potatoes (5.59 percent), Pulse Gram (0.34 percent), Eggs (0.23 percent), Garlic (0.21 percent), LPG (0.18 percent), Wheat Flour (0.09 percent) and Pulse Mash (0.05 percent).  During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.33 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 24 (47.06 percent) items remained stable.