Daily Times

The weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed further decrease of 0.34 per cent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on May 23, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 308.19 points as compared to 309.25 points during the past week. 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 21.31 per cent. 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 Rs 17,732, decreased by 0.38 per cent and went down to 298.56 points from the last week’s 299.70 points.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,732-22,888, Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175, decreased by 0.39 percent, 0.35 percent, 0.36 and 0.33 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 12 (23.53%) items increased, 18 (35.29%) items decreased and 21 (41.18%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included garlic (7.87%), chicken (5.92%), wheat flour (4.66%), LPG (3.23%), onions (1.99%), eggs (1.22%), rice basmati broken (1.12%), pulse masoor (0.95%), rice irri (0.84%) and firewood (0.04%).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included beef (0.49%), energy saver (0.44%), pulse gram (0.42%), milk powder (0.37%), tea prepared (0.30%), mutton (0.25%), gur (0.22%), shirting (0.17%), cigarettes (0.13%), curd (0.11%) and milk fresh (0.06%).