The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), rose by 1.30 percent for the combined consumption group during the week that ended on August 3. The SPI for this group reached 271.56 points, compared to 268.08 points in the previous week.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) report released on Friday, compared to the corresponding week of the previous year, the SPI for the combined consumption group saw a significant increase of 29.83 percent.
The weekly SPI, with the base year 2015-16 = 100, covers 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
Among different consumption groups, the SPI for the lowest group, up to Rs 17,732, rose by 0.82 percent, reaching 277.55 points from last week’s 275.30 points. For consumption groups with higher spending, the SPI increased as follows: Rs 17,732-22,888 (0.92 percent), Rs 22,889-29,517 (0.97 percent), Rs 29,518-44,175 (1.11 percent), and above Rs 44,175 (1.53 percent).
During the week, out of 51 items, 23 (45.10%) items experienced price increases, 07 (13.72%) items decreased in price, and 21 (41.18%) items remained stable.
Among the items that experienced a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) basis were mustard oil (1.63%), chicken (1.40%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.51%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.36%), pulse gram (0.22%), wheat flour (0.20%), and pulse moong (0.03%).
On the other hand, items that saw an increase in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) basis included tomatoes (16.85%), chillies powder (7.58%), garlic (5.71%), onion (5.50%), powdered milk (5.17%), eggs (3.86%), rice basmati broken (2.06%), LPG (9.82%), petrol (7.86%), and diesel (7.82%).
Looking at the Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, commodities that witnessed a decrease in price included onions (37.10%), electricity for q1 (18.06%), pulse masoor (15.07%), and vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.13%).
In contrast, commodities that recorded an increase in their average prices on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis included wheat flour (131.40%), cigarettes (109.57%), gas charges for q1 (108.38%), tea lipton (97.71%), rice basmati broken (82.86%), rice irri-6/9 (72.73%), tomatoes (67.54%), chilies powder (66.74%), sugar (64.12%), chicken (60.51%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), gur (57.75%), and potatoes (55.75%).