Weekly Inflation Crosses 38% Due to Costly Electricity and Gas

Weekly inflation remained above 37 percent for the fourth straight week and stood at 38.3 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the week ended on October 12, 2023, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PSB) on Friday. The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the current week ended on 12 October, 2023, increased by 0.30 percent over the previous week. The week-on-week increase was due to an increase in prices of Tomatoes (6.28 percent), Eggs (3.48 percent), Salt Powdered (2.75 percent), Cooked Beef (1.06 percent), Garlic (1.04 percent), Tea Prepared (0.73 percent), Beef (0.39 percent), Potatoes (0.35 percent), Electricity Charges for Q1 (8.59 percent), and LPG (0.31 percent) among others. A decrease was observed in the prices of Sugar (4.47 percent), Pulse Gram (2.75 percent) Bananas (2.47 percent), Pulse Moong (2.44 percent), Gur (1.93 percent), Chicken (1.69 percent) Rice IRRI-6/9 (1.46 percent) and Pulse Masoor (1.26 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.33 percent) items increased, 17 (33.33 percent) items decreased and 17 (33.33 percent) items remained stable. The year-on-year trend depicted an increase due to increase in prices of Electricity Charges for Q1 (136.89 percent), Gas Charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), Cigarettes (95.36 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (86.21 percent), Chilies Powder (84.84 percent), Wheat Flour (79.28 percent), Rice Irri-6/9 (75.98 percent), Sugar (71.87 percent), Gur (65.09 percent), Salt Powdered (60.78 percent), and Tea Lipton (58.75 percent) while decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (43.53 percent), Onions (16.67 percent), Pulse Gram (4.01 percent) and Mustard Oil (1.19 percent).