SPI-based Weekly Inflation Registers Drastic Increase Due to Increase in Food Prices

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended 19 May 2022, recorded an increase of 1.42 percent mainly due to an increase in the prices of food and non-food items, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 16.54 percent, tomatoes (171.18 percent), onions (147.18 percent), LPG (99.65 percent), garlic (81.51 percent), pulse masoor (61.69 percent), mustard oil (61.05 percent), cooking oil 5 litres (60.43 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (59.80 percent), vegetable ghee 1 kg (59.09 percent), washing soap (39.96 percent), petrol (37.42 percent) and diesel (29.63 percent), while major decrease observed in the prices of chillies powdered (39.50 percent), bananas (25.21 percent), pulse moong (24.40 percent), potatoes (20.78 percent), sugar (14.13 percent) and electricity charges for Q1 (11.71 percent). According to the latest data, the SPI went up from 172.63 percent during the week ended 12 May, 2022 to 175.08 percent during the week under review. The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs. 17,732 and Rs. 17,733 to Rs. 22,888, Rs. 22,889 to Rs. 29,517 and Rs. 29,518 to Rs. 44,175 and for above Rs. 44,175 increased by 1.46 percent, 1.58 percent, 1.54 percent, 1.52 percent and 1.30 percent, respectively. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 33 (64.71 percent) items increased, 04 (7.84 percent) items decreased and 14 (27.45 percent) items remained stable, says the PBS. The items the prices of which increased included chicken (9.03 percent), pulse masoor (6.30 percent), energy saver philips (4.37 percent), eggs (4.24 percent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (3.99 percent), pulse gram (3.86 percent), rice basmati broken (3.11 percent), mustard oil (2.99 percent), rice irri-6/9 (2.67 percent), long cloth 57″ gul ahmed/al karam (1.97 percent), pulse mash (1.86 percent), curd (1.68 percent), onions (1.38 percent), milk fresh (1.18 percent), pulse moong (0.96 percent), beef with bone (0.93 percent), LPG (0.90 percent), cigarettes capstan (0.69 percent), sugar (0.63 percent), firewood whole 40 kg (0.62 percent), georgette (0.60 percent), shirting (0.53 percent), mutton (0.51 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib or other superior quality 1 kg pouch each (0.42 percent), cooked beef (0.41 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib 2.5 kg tin each (0.41 percent), cooking oil dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each (0.41 percent), powdered milk nido 390 gm polybag each (0.34 percent), tea prepared (0.26 percent), lawn printed gul ahmed/al karam (0.25 percent), tea lipton yellow label (0.23 percent), garlic (0.20 percent) and sufi washing soap (0.12 percent). The items which registered a decrease in prices include bananas (2.97 percent), tomatoes (0.20 percent), potatoes (0.11 percent) and gur (0.07 percent).