ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 4.15 percent year-on-year in the week ending Nov 13, driven largely by higher retail prices of edible oil and sugar, official data showed on Friday.
The SPI has recorded upward momentum for 15 consecutive weeks, mainly due to price surges in perishable items such as onions, tomatoes, potatoes, wheat flour, and LPG cylinders. Weekly inflation also increased 0.53 percent compared to the previous week. Disruptions in supply, particularly from the border closure with Afghanistan, contributed to rising prices of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. Meat prices also continued their upward trend, reversing some earlier declines.
Read More: Weekly inflation drops 0.59% as SPI records slight decline
Week-on-week, the largest price increases were seen in chicken (20.33%), tomatoes (12.03%), bananas (2.32%), LPG (1.97%), and cooking oil (0.38%). Conversely, prices of onions (6.65%), pulse gram (2.61%), salt powder (1.8%), gur (1.78%), and sugar (1.07%) recorded declines.
On an annual basis, the steepest price hikes were noted in ladies’ sandals (55.62%), sugar (40.25%), gas charges for Q1 (29.85%), wheat flour (18.7%), and beef (14.29%). In contrast, garlic (36.29%), pulse gram (29.89%), electricity charges (26.26%), tomatoes (23.01%), and potatoes (22.46%) saw the largest annual declines.
Read More: Weekly inflation up by 0.53%
The SPI, which tracks prices of 51 essential items across 50 markets in 17 cities, recorded 15 items with increased prices, 12 with declines, and 24 remaining stable compared to the previous week.