The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation increased by 1.53 percent for the third straight week ended on April 7 after surging 0.53 percent and 1.10 percent in the preceding weeks. According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, inflation on a year-on-year basis increased to 17.87 percent from 16.79 percent recorded a week earlier. The weekly inflation for the lowest income group (Q1) witnessed an increase of 1.85 percent, while it went 16.13 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same group. Overall for the other four income groups, the weekly inflation increased from 1.39 percent (Q5) to 1.83 percent (Q2), while it went up from 16.13 percent (Q2) to 18.47 percent (Q5) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. According to the PBS, the combined index was at 174.45 on April 7, 2022 as compared to 171.82 on March 31, 2022 while the index was recorded at 148.00 a year ago on April 08, 2021. The SPI is computed on a weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country. The SPI with base 2015-16=100 comprises 51 essential items and the prices are being collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country for all expenditure groups/quintiles and combined. During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.14pc) items increased, prices of 08 (15.68pc) items decreased, and prices of 21 (41.18pc) items remained stable. The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of food items including tomatoes (52.75pc), onions (27.34pc), bananas (12.24pc), garlic (2.80pc), beef (2.74pc), mutton (2.70pc), cooking oil 5-litre (2.29pc), salt powdered (1.70pc) and vegetable ghee 1-kg (1.35pc), and non-food item, LPG (2.14pc) is observed with joint impact of (1.59pc) into the overall SPI for combined group of (1.53pc). On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of chillies powdered (3.29pc), chicken (2.92pc), potatoes (0.91pc), wheat flour (0.68pc), gur (0.54pc), pulse Mash (0.33pc), sugar (0.09pc) and pulse Moong (0.01pc). According to the PBS data, the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 17.87pc, with tomatoes (223.16pc), onions (82.21pc), LPG (79.21pc), garlic (76.45pc), cooking oil 5 litre (57.86pc), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (57.67pc), mustard oil (57.55pc), vegetable ghee 1-kg (56.88pc), washing soap (39.60pc), pulse Masoor (38.47pc), petrol (35.25pc), bananas (28.07pc) and diesel (27.00pc), while a major decrease was observed in the prices of chillies powdered (39.50pc), pulse Moong (28.61pc), eggs (22.39pc), potatoes (13.38pc) and sugar (11.45pc).