Daily Times

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on December 2, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a decrease of 0.48 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 167.36 points against 168.16 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data. The food commodities that contributed to the decline in weekly inflation included tomatoes, the prices of which decreased by 16.57 percent on a Week-on-Week (WoW) basis.

Other food commodities that witnessed decline in prices included onions (7.74pc), chicken (7.68pc), LPG (2.43pc), sugar (1.51pc), eggs (1.43pc), chilies powdered (0.88pc), potatoes (0.67pc), wheat flour (0.58pc), gur (0.45pc) and garlic (0.29pc).

On a Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed a decrease in prices included onions (37.63pc), pulse Moong (26.88pc), potatoes (20.08pc), tomatoes (17.45pc), and chicken (2.05pc).

Meanwhile, the commodities that witnessed increase on WoW basis, included bananas (3.82pc), pulse masoor (2.60pc), pulse mash (2.26pc), pulse moong (2.10pc), cooking oil 5 litre (1.95pc), washing soap (1.80pc) and vegetable ghee 1kg (1.44pc).

The items that witnessed increase in prices on YoY basis included, electricity for Q1 (75.32pc), LPG (70.10pc), cooking oil 5 litre (60.53pc), vegetable ghee 1Kg (58.45pc), mustard oil (56.73pc), vegetable ghee 2.5Kg (56.53pc), petrol (44.35pc), washing soap (43.51pc), diesel (34.93pc), gents sandal (33.37pc) and chilies powdered (33.00pc).

Meanwhile, 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 18.35 percent. The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed a 0.47 percent decrease and went down to 176.77 this week from 177.60 points last week.

Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs44,175 also decreased by 0.50 percent, 0.47 percent, 0.48 percent, and 0.47 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 21 (41.18pc) items increased, 11 (21.57pc) items decreased and 19 (37.25pc) items remained stable. It is pertinent to mention here that the weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.