Weekly Inflation Soars to All-Time High of 47.23%

Weekly inflation remained above the 40 percent barrier for the ninth straight week and soared to 47.23 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the week ended on April 19, 2023, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PSB) on Thursday. The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation for the week ended April 19, 2023, recorded an increase of 0.51 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 food items, Potatoes (3.79 percent), Tea Lipton (3.61 percent), Gur (3.40 percent), Bread (2.48 percent), Chicken (2.00 percent), Bananas (1.68 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (1.54 percent) and Rice Irri-6/9 (1.22 percent), non-food items, LPG (4.75 percent), Petrol (3.67 percent) and Match Box (2.51 percent). On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (13.11 percent), Onions (4.62 percent), Garlic (3.59 percent), Sugar (1.52 percent), Wheat Flour (0.93 percent), Mustard Oil (0.56 percent), Cigarettes (0.26 percent) and Pulse Gram (0.22 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 29 (56.86 percent) items increased, 08 (15.69 percent) items decreased and 14 (27.45 percent) items remained stable. The year-on-year trend posted an increase due to increase in the prices Cigarettes (151.45 percent), Wheat Flour (143.88 percent), Gas Charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), Tea Lipton (104.28 percent), Diesel (102.84 percent), Potatoes (98.74 percent), Bananas (98.42 percent), Eggs (97.80 percent), Petrol (87.81 percent), Rice Basmati Broken (87.30 percent), Rice Irri-6/9 (83.52 percent), Pulse Moong (68.94 percent), Bread (59.22 percent) and Pulse Mash (58.35 percent), while a decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (8.65 percent) and Chilies Powdered (6.48 percent).