Short-Term Inflation Rises Slightly as Food Prices Go Up

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended August 8, 2024, increased by 0.30 percent mainly due to increase in the prices of  onions (32.23 percent), eggs (4.28 percent), garlic (3.23 percent), LPG (1.73 percent), pulse mash (0.97 percent), pulse gram (0.95 percent) and chicken (0.52 percent), according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 23 (45.10 percent) items increased, 7 (13.72 percent) items decreased and 21 (41.18 percent) items remained stable. The year-on-year trend depicted an increase of 17.96 percent mainly due to increase in the prices of gas charges for q1 (570 percent), onions (142.48 percent), pulse gram (42.23 percent), pulse moong (29.62 percent), garlic (28.93 percent), powered milk (27.68 percent), beef (23.11 percent), salt powder (21.05 percent), pulse mash (18.68 percent), cooked daal (17.78 percent), energy saver (17.21 percent) and long cloth (16.64 percent), while major decrease was observed in the prices of wheat flour (33.37 percent), tomatoes (18.09 percent), electricity charges for Q1 (16.91 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (12.61 percent), chilies powder (11.55 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (9.79 percent), vegetable ghee 1 kg (7.44 percent), mustard oil (5.91 percent), rice basmati broken (5.71 percent), petrol (1.20 percent), diesel (0.16 percent) and washing soap (0.12 percent).