Weekly Inflation Remains Over 48% for Second Straight Week

Weekly inflation remained above 48 percent for the second straight week and stood at 48.02 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the week ended on May 11, 2023, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PSB) on Friday. The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation for the week ended May 11, 2023, recorded an increase of 0.27 percent over the previous week due to an increase in the prices of food and non-food items. A major increase was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (6.32 percent), Gur (3.41 percent), Wheat Flour (2.76 percent), Tea Prepared (2.66 percent), Potatoes (2.14 percent), Cooked Beef (2.12 percent), Cooked Daal (1.98 percent), Powdered Milk (1.91 percent), Eggs (1.83 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (1.42 percent), Pulse Masoor (1.19 percent), and Beef (1.18 percent). On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of Onions (9.40 percent), Chicken (2.25 percent), LPG (1.51 percent), Garlic (1.39 percent), Bananas (0.68 percent), Pulse Gram (0.13 percent) and Mustard Oil (0.05 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 23 (45.09 percent) items increased, 07 (13.73 percent) items decreased and 21 (41.18 percent) items remained stable. The year-on-year trend posted an increase due to increase in the prices of Cigarettes (140.15 percent), Potatoes (112.80 percent), Gas Charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), Tea Lipton (106.09 percent), Wheat Flour (101.20 percent), Gents Sponge Chappal (100.33 percent), Diesel (99.39 percent), Bananas (98.22 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (90.76 percent), Eggs (89.40 percent), Petrol (87.81 percent), Rice Irri-6/9 (83.47 percent), Pulse Moong (66.91 percent), Bread (62.83 percent) and Pulse Mash (58.79 percent), while a decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (39.70 percent), Onions (22.17 percent) and Chilies Powdered (6.48 percent).