Weekly Inflation Remains Over 30% as Prices of Food Items Soar

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended December 1 recorded a decrease of 0.16 percent due to a decline 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 30.56 percent, mainly due to an increase in onions (388.52 percent), tomatoes (73.25 percent), diesel (64.57 percent), tea lipton (62.61 percent), salt powdered (55.29 percent), petrol (53.85 percent), pulse gram (52.71 percent), gents sponge chappal (52.21 percent), bananas (52.02 percent), eggs (51.87 percent), pulse moong (47.67 percent), pulse mash (43.44 percent), and mustard oil (42.51 percent), while a decrease is observed in the price of chillies powdered (40.90 percent), gur (5.35 percent) and electricity for the first quarter (q1) (2.67 percent). The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 218.51 points, against 218.87 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest PBS data released on Friday. During the week, out of 51 items, the prices of 23 (45.10 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased, and 18 (35.29 percent) items remained stable. The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs. 17,732, Rs. 17,732-22,888, Rs. 22,889-29,517, Rs. 29,518-44,175 and above decreased by 0.34 percent, 0.30 percent, 0.24 percent, 0.18 percent, and 0.10 percent, respectively. The items that recorded an increase in their average prices during the week over previous, include, bananas (3.36 percent), tea lipton yellow label 190 gm packet each (1.72 percent), potatoes (1.65 percent), match box (1.32 percent), salt powdered (national/shan) 800 gm packet each (1.32 percent), rice irri-6/9 (1.23 percent), eggs (0.99 percent), garlic (0.81 percent), firewood whole 40 kg (0.76 percent), cooked beef (0.76 percent), bread plain (0.69 percent), sufi washing soap (0.56 percent), milk (0.54 percent), rice basmati broken (0.52 percent), mustard oil (0.43 percent), sugar (0.68 percent), curd (0.27 percent), shirting (0.23 percent), pulse moong (0.21 percent), powdered milk nido 390 gm polybag (0.20 percent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (0.09 percent), cooked daal (0.01 percent) and pulse mash (0.01 percent). The commodities that recorded a decrease in their average prices included tomatoes (12.26 percent), onions (2.79 percent), chicken (1.71 percent), pulse gram (0.68 percent), pulse masoor (0.64 percent), LPG (0.42 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib 2.5 kg tin each (0.38 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib or other superior quality 1 kg pouch each (0.12 percent), cooking oil dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each (0.11 percent), and gur (0.11 percent).