Weekly Inflation Decreases as Food Prices Fall

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended December 5, 2024, decreased by 0.34 percent due to a decline in the prices of tomatoes (25.15 percent), chicken (9.90 percent), pulse mash (1.67 percent), pulse gram (0.73 percent), wheat flour (0.71 percent), pulse masoor (0.46 percent) and lpg (0.19 percent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).  During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 18 (35.29 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 23 (45.10 percent) items remained stable.    The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 3.57 percent mainly due to an increase in the prices of pulse gram (65.64 percent), pulse moong (37.83 percent), powdered milk (25.74 percent), beef (23.77 percent), tomatoes (17.93 percent), garlic (17.44 percent), potatoes (17.31 percent), gas charges for Q1 (15.52 percent), shirting (15.03 percent), cooked daal (15.02 percent) and georgette (13.07 percent).  On the other hand, major decrease was observed in the prices of wheat flour (35.40 percent), chilies powder (20.00 percent), diesel (10.77 percent), petrol (10.33 percent), pulse masoor (9.66 percent), rice basmati broken (7.86 percent), tea lipton (7.53 percent), chicken (7.34 percent), electricity charges for Q1 (6.96 percent), bread (5.99 percent) and onions (4.55 percent).