Daily Times

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation surged for the fourth consecutive week by 0.34 percent for the week ended on January 18, 2024, after rising by 1.36 percent, 0.37 percent and 0.81 in the preceding three weeks.

According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, inflation on a year-on-year basis increased by 44.64 percent during the week as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.

The inflation for the week ended on January 18 for the lowest income group (Q1) witnessed an increase of 0.61 percent, while it went up by 37.23 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same group. For the other four income groups, the weekly inflation increased from 0.23 percent (Q5) to 0.54 percent (Q2), while it went up from 42.35 percent (Q2) to 48.43 percent (Q3) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

According to the PBS, the combined index was at 319 on January 18, 2024 as compared to 317.92 on January 11, 2024, while the index was recorded at 220.54 a year ago on January 19, 2023.

The SPI is computed on a weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country. The SPI with base 2015-16=100 comprises 51 essential items and the prices are being collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country for all expenditure groups/quintiles and combined. During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.14%) items increased, prices of 08 (15.68%) items decreased, and prices of 21 (41.18%) items remained stable.

The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of items including onions (8.69%), tomatoes (7.51%), energy sever (2.72%), chicken (2.26%), garlic (2.18%), bananas (2.14%), eggs (1.89%), match box (1.67%), pulse Mash (1.59%) and pulse Moong (1.46%).

On the other hand, a major decrease was observed in the prices of items including potatoes (3.85%), petrol (2.99%), sugar (0.90%), tea Lipton (0.20%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (0.14%), cooking oil 5-litre (0.08%), wheat flour (0.07%) and gur (0.04%).

According to the PBS data, the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 44.64 percent, including gas charges for Q1 (1108.59%), tomatoes (183.16%), cigarettes (93.22%), chillie powder (81.74%), wheat flour (65.03%), garlic (60.45%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), sugar (57.26%), gents sandal (53.37%), rice IRRI-6/9 (49.95%), gur (49.45%) and eggs (47.54%). On a year-on-year basis, a major decrease was observed in the prices of mustard oil (6.86%), bananas (2.39%), onions (2.00%) and vegetable ghee 1-kg (1.17%).