Daily Times

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), went up slightly by 0.10 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on October 31, 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 319.40 points as compared to 319.09 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 14.45 per cent. The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

However, SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs 17,732 witnessed decrease of 0.36 per cent and went down to 312.02 points from last week’s 313.16 points.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,732 to 22,888 also decreased by 0.40 percent however for consumption groups from Rs 22,889-29,517 and Rs 29,518-44,175 it increased by 0.18 percent and 0.32 percent respectively.

The SPI for consumption group above Rs 44,175, decreased by 0.07 percent, according to PBS data

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 12 (23.53%) items increased, 12 (23.53%) items decreased and 27 (52.94%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included tomatoes (11.02%), chicken (10.57%), onions (1.68%), bananas (1.42%), sugar (1.20%), pulse mash (0.98%), gur (0.69%) and wheat flour (0.43%).

The commodities which recorded major increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included eggs (3.40%), garlic (2.95%), lpg (1.92%), mustard oil (1.49%), pulse moong (1.27%), firewood (1.09%), vegetable ghee 1kg (1.08%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.50%), potatoes (0.30%) and curd (0.20%).

On-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included wheat flour (31.76%), electricity charges for q1 (20.32%), chilies powder (20.00%), tomatoes (19.37%), diesel (17.05%), petrol (12.77%), rice basmati broken (8.09%), cooking oil 5 litre (7.45%), sugar (7.16%), bread (5.55%), eggs (3.93%) and washing soap (0.32%).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included , gas charges for Q1 (570.00%), pulse gram (83.11%), pulse moong (39.09%), powdered milk (25.57%), beef (23.53%), onions (17.95%), garlic (17.55%), shirting (17.02%), cooked daal (15.14%), mutton (13.68%), georgette (12.81%) and ladies sandal (12.52%).