Daily Times

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on April 22, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a decrease of 0.41 percent as compared to the previous week while it went up 17.68 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, the Combined Index was at 148.2 compared to 148.8 on Apr 15, 2021 while the index was recorded at 125.93 a year ago, on Apr 23, 2020

The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 12 items increased, 13 items decreased whereas 26 items registered no change during the week.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all quantiles ranging between 0.38 percent and 0.41 percent. The lowest income group witnessed a weekly decrease of 0.38 percent while the highest income group recorded a decrease of 0.41 percent.

On an yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 16.48 percent and 21.04 percent.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 21.04 percent while the highest income group recorded an increase of 16.48 percent.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs1744 per 50-kg bag which is 0.11 percent higher than last week’s price and 4.31 percent higher when compared to last year. Meanwhile, average cement price remained unchanged from previous week at Rs614 per 50-kg bag but 11.84 percent higher than prices last year.

Earlier last week, the SPI-based weekly inflation for the week ended on April 15, for the combined consumption group, witnessed an increase of 0.54 percent as compared to the previous week while it went up 18.89 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.