Short-Term Inflation in Pakistan Turns Negative After 7 Years

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) based inflation for the week ended March 6, 2025, decreased by 0.87 percent on a year-on-year basis, according to the data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). According to brokerage house Topline Securities, the year-on-year inflation number has turned negative for the first time in almost 7 years. The year-on-year trend depicts an increase mainly due to decrease in prices of Onions (64.92 percent), Tomatoes (57.05 percent), Wheat Flour (36.81 percent), Chilies Powder (20.00 percent), Electricity Charges for Q1 (18.92 percent), Tea Lipton (14.92 percent), Pulse Mash (14.68 percent), Pulse Masoor (12.33 percent), Diesel (9.91 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (9.55 percent), Petrol (8.55 percent) and LPG (2.54 percent). While major increase is observed in the prices of Ladies Sandal (75.09 percent), Bananas (30.96 percent), Pulse Moong (26.90 percent), Powdered Milk (25.86 percent), Beef (22.51 percent), Pulse Gram (21.73 percent), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (16.12 percent), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (14.32 percent), Shirting (14.13 percent), Eggs (13.52 percent), Firewood (11.07 percent) and Georgette (10.89 percent). On the other hand, the SPI based inflation decreased by 0.09 percent on week-on-week basis due to a decrease in the prices of Onions (5.59 percent), Tea Lipton (4.47 percent), Garlic (3.89 percent), Tomatoes (3.60 percent), Pulse Gram (3.49 percent), Pulse Mash (2.82 percent), Potatoes (2.60 percent), Diesel (2.00 percent), Pulse Masoor (1.50 percent) and Petrol (0.24 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 13 (25.49 percent) items increased, 20 (39.22 percent) items decreased and 18 (35.29 percent) items remained stable.