Weekly Inflation Remains Close to 30% Over Previous Year

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended July 20, 2023, decreased by 0.07 percent due to decrease in the prices of food items, onions (10.29 percent), chicken (8.57 percent), bananas (8.34 percent), wheat flour (0.98 percent), non-food items, petrol (3.40 percent) and diesel (2.64 percent), says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 29.16 percent mainly due to an increase in the prices of wheat flour (126.82 percent), cigarettes (110.75 percent), gas charges for q1 (108.38 percent), tea lipton (98.99 percent), rice basmati broken (79.37 percent), rice irri-6/9 (74.14 percent), sugar (66.18 percent), potatoes (60.32 percent), gents sponge chappal (58.05 percent), tomatoes (57.58 percent), gur (54.21 percent), salt powdered (53.83 percent) and bread (46.93 percent), while a decrease was observed in the prices of onions (35.27 percent), electricity for q1 (14.58 percent), pulse masoor (8.08 percent), LPG (1.06 percent) and vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.51 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 30 (58.82 percent) items increased, 09 (17.65 percent) items decreased and 12 (23.53 percent) items remained stable. Some of the items which recorded an increase in their average prices during the week over the previous include tomatoes (36.06 percent), chilies powder national 200 gm packet each (20.17 percent), sugar (4.77 percent), eggs (4.70 percent), gur (3.66 percent), shirting (2.64 percent), and garlic (2.31 percent). Some of the items which recorded a decrease in their average prices during the week over the previous include onions (10.29 percent), chicken (8.57 percent), bananas (8.34 percent), petrol super (3.40 percent), hi-speed diesel (2.64 percent), and wheat flour bag 20 kg (0.98 percent).