Weekly Inflation Comes in at 29% Due to Higher Food Prices

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended July 13, 2023, increased by 0.33 percent due to increase in the prices of food items including sugar (5.22 percent), wheat flour (4.23 percent), gur (3.68 percent), salt powdered (2.17 percent) and eggs (1.34 percent), says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The year on year trend depicts increase of 28.96 percent mainly due to increase in the prices of wheat flour (129.84 percent), cigarettes (111.74 percent), gas charges for q1 (108.38 percent), tea lipton (101.56 percent), rice basmati broken (76.74 percent), rice irri-6/9 (73.88 percent), potatoes (61.67 percent), gents sponge chappal (58.05 percent), sugar (57.91 percent), chicken (56.06 percent), salt powdered (53.49 percent), gur (48.30 percent) and bread (46.86 percent), while decrease is observed in the prices of onions (28.17 percent), electricity for q1 (14.58 percent), pulse masoor (7.54 percent), diesel (5.82 percent), lpg (1.23 percent) and vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.16 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 21 (41.17 percent) items increased, 11 (21.58 percent) items decreased and 19 (37.25 percent) items remained stable. The items, which recorded an increase in their average prices during the week over the previous include sugar (5.22 percent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (4.23 percent), gur (3.68 percent), salt powdered (2.17 percent), eggs (1.34 percent), energy saver philips (0.81 percent), toilet soap (0.80 percent), rice basmati broken (0.77 percent), rice irri-6/9 (0.75 prcent), milk fresh (0.47 percent), match box (0.36 percent), tea prepared ordinary (0.33 percent), garlic (0.33 percent), sufi washing soap (0.29 percent), pulse mash (0.27 percent), potatoes (0.14 percent), curd (0.14 percent), beef with bone (0.12 percent), cooked beef (0.08 percent), powdered milk nido (0.06 percent) and mustard oil (0.04 percent). The items, which recorded decrease in their average prices during the week over the previous include bananas (12.18 percent), tomatoes (6.35 percent), onions (5.32 percent), LPG (2.17 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib 2.5 kg tin each (0.85 percent), pulse moong (0.70 percent), cooking oil dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each (0.51 percent), pulse gram (0.46 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib or other superior quality 1 kg pouch each (0.36 percent), pulse masoor (0.18 percent) and chicken (0.13 percent).