ISLAMABAD – The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), recorded a slight decrease of 0.02 percent for the combined consumption group during the week ended on September 11, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday. The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 335.35 points against 335.41 points during the past week, according to the PBS data.
As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 5.03 percent. The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16=100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. The SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs17,732 decreased by 0.10 percent, going down to 327.39 points from last week’s 327.73 points. The SPI for consumption groups of Rs17,733–22,888; Rs22,889–29,517; Rs29,518–44,175 and above Rs44,175 decreased by 0.13 percent, 0.11 percent, 0.09 percent respectively, while the highest group (above Rs44,175) witnessed an increase of 0.06 percent. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.14 percent) items increased, 4 (7.84 percent) items decreased and 25 (49.02 percent) items remained stable.
The items which recorded major increase in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included onions (12.17 percent), tomatoes (10.47 percent), potatoes (3.57 percent), LPG (3.10 percent), rice IRRI-6/9 (1.63 percent), eggs (1.52 percent), sugar (1.46 percent), pulse moong (1.33 percent), pulse mash (1.28 percent), firewood (0.24 percent), lawn printed (0.19 percent) and shirting (0.18 percent). The commodities which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included wheat flour (9.80 percent), chicken (3.20 percent), bananas (3.10 percent) and gur (0.30 percent).
On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed an increase in prices included tomatoes (90.07 percent), ladies sandal (55.62 percent), gas charges for Q1 (29.85 percent), sugar (29.33 percent), wheat flour (18.65 percent), pulse moong (15.17 percent), gur (13.08 percent), beef (11.92 percent), firewood (11.73 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (11.26 percent), vegetable ghee 1-kg (10.82 percent) and lawn printed (7.92 percent). The commodities which recorded decrease in their average prices on year-on-year basis included onions (40.28 percent), garlic (26.69 percent), electricity charges for Q1 (21.37 percent), pulse mash (20.89 percent), pulse gram (20.43 percent), tea (17.93 percent), potatoes (15.70 percent), pulse masoor (4.97 percent) and rice IRRI-6/9 (3.05 percent).
