Daily Times

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed an increase of 0.11 percent for the combined consumption group during the week ended on October 5, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 282.00 points as compared to 281.70 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 37.07 percent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. The SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs 17,732, increased by 0.49 percent and went up to 286.29 points from last week’s 284.89 points. The SPI for consumption groups from Rs 17,732-22,888, Rs 22,889-29,517 and Rs 29,518-44,175 increased by 0.38 percent, 0.27 percent and 0.17 percent respectively whereas it declined by 0.03 percent for income group above Rs 44,175.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 19 (37.26%) items increased, 16 (31.37%) items decreased and 16 (31.37%) items remained stable

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) included diesel (3.33%), chicken (2.78%), petrol (2.40%), pulse masoor (1.80%), pulse gram (1.73%), gur (1.14%), pulse moong (0.58%), pulse mash (0.33%), wheat flour (0.32%) and vegetable ghee (0.20%). The items that recorded an increase in their average prices on a
week-on-week (wow) basis, included tomatoes (12.45%), onions (11.96%), garlic (2.59%), potatoes (1.81%), cooked daal (1.27%), eggs (0.84%), beef (0.53%), bread (0.52%), LPG (3.11%), firewood (0.76%) and long cloth (0.51%).

The commodities that witnessed a decrease in price on a year-on-year (yoy) basis included tomatoes (54.05%), onions (18.21%), pulse gram (2.67%) and mustard oil (0.16%). On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, the commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices included electricity charges for q1 (118.16%), gas charges for q1 (108.38%), cigarettes (94.69%), rice basmati broken (87.60%), chilies powder (84.84%), sugar (79.55%), rice irri-6/9 (78.69%), wheat flour (77.91%), gur (67.68%), tea packet (60.72%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), salt powdered (56.48%), garlic (54.78%), gents sandal (53.37%), petrol (43.70%) and potatoes (42.99%).