Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on December 9, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a slight decrease of 0.07 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 167.24 points against 167.36 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 13.37 percent on Week-on-Week (WoW) basis.

Other food commodities that witnessed decline in prices included chicken (10.59%), potatoes (4.48%), LPG (2.96%), sugar (1.03%), gur (0.51%), wheat flour (0.46%), mustard oil (0.27%) and eggs (0.26%). On Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices included onions (31.99%), tomatoes (27.61%), pulse Moong (25.03%), potatoes (17.64%), chicken (12.80%) and eggs (6.28%).

Meanwhile, the commodities that witnessed increase on WoW basis, included f bananas (3.34%), pulse Masoor (3.29%), pulse Gram (2.83%), pulse Mash (2.78%), pulse Moong (2.32%), washing soap (2.19%), onions (1.65%) and match Box (1.17%). The items that witnessed increase in prices on YoY basis included electricity for Q1 (75.32%), LPG (65.43%), cooking oil 5 litre (61.26%), vegetable ghee 1 Kg (58.14%), mustard oil (55.29%), vegetable ghee 2.5 Kg (55.25%), washing soap (45.85%), petrol (44.35%), diesel (34.93%), gents sandal (33.37%) and chilies powdered (33.00%)

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 18.58 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 0.14 percent decrease and went down to 176.52 this week from 176.77 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 Rs 44,175 also decreased by 0.12 percent, 0.07 percent, 0.02 percent and 0.07 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 19 (37.25%) items increased 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 23 (45.10%) 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.