Weekly Inflation Remains Over 42% Despite Slight Decrease

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ended 8th September 2022 recorded a decrease of 0.58 percent due decline in food items prices, says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 42.70 percent, down slightly from the all-time high of 45.50 percent recorded in the previous week. The year-on-year increase was due to an increase in prices of tomatoes (144.25 percent), diesel (114.08 percent), petrol (98.73 percent), pulse masoor (76.34 percent), cooking oil-5 liter (67.99 percent), mustard oil (66.53 percent), LPG (64.98 percent), washing soap (64.50 percent), electricity for Q1 (63.03 percent), vegetable ghee-2.5 kg (62.53 percent), pulse gram (61.02 percent), onions (59.97 percent) and vegetable ghee-1 kg (58.19 percent), while a decrease was observed in the prices of chilies powder (43.42 percent), sugar (18.07 percent) and gur (2.08 percent) According to the latest data, the SPI went down from 222.85 percent during the week ended 1st September 2022 to 221.55 percent during the week under review. The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs. 17,732, Rs. 17,733 to Rs. 22,888, Rs. 22,889 to Rs. 29,517, Rs. 29,518 to Rs. 44,175 and for above Rs. 44,175 decreased by 1.52 percent, 1.28 percent, 0.97 percent, 0.77 percent and 0.25 percent respectively. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98 percent) items increased, nine (17.65 percent) items decreased and 16 (31.37 percent) items remained stable. The items the prices of which increased included LPG (10.66 percent), wheat flour (4.15 percent), eggs (3.96 percent), bread (3.27 percent), pulse moong (2.74 percent), curd (2.72 percent), tea-lipton (2.50 percent), pulse gram (1.65 percent), chicken (1.58 percent), milk fresh (1.57 percent), fire wood (1.54 percent), potatoes (1.02 percent), and others On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of onions (41.99 percent), tomatoes (8.11 percent), bananas (2.51 percent), pulse masoor (1.37 percent), vegetable ghee-1 kg (0.55 percent), cooking oil-5 liter (0.33 percent), mustard oil (0.16 percent) and vegetable ghee-2.5 kg and sugar (0.11 percent) each.