ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on May 26 for the combined consumption group, witnessed a decrease of 0.26 percent as compared to the previous week.
The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 174.62 points against 175.08 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released here Friday. 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 16.97 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 Rs 17,732 witnessed 0.38 percent decrease and went down from 184.69 points in last week to 183.98 points during the week under review. Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs 17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 decreased by 0.44 percent, 0.40 percent and 0.35 percent and 0.15 percent respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 27 (52.94%) items increased, 05 (9.81%) items decreased and 19 (37.25%) items remained stable. The items, which recorded decrease in their average prices on WoW basis, included wheat flour (12.25%), chillies powdered (6.48%), chicken (4.41%), garlic (2.99%), and LPG(0.43%).
The commodities that witnessed increase on WoW basis included, potatoes (8.43%) tomatoes (6.33%), eggs (6.29%), rice basmati broken (4.71%), mustard oil (4.16%), pulse masoor (3.93%), milk fresh (3.47%), onions (3.03%), pulse gram (2.58%), curd (2.35%), washing soap (2.13%), cooked beef (1.55%), beef (1.42%), pulse mash (1.33%), cooked daal (1.32%), mutton (1.30%) and rice irri-6/9 (1.24%)On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices included chillies powdered (43.42%), pulse moong (23.30%), bananas (19.86%), sugar (12.82%), potatoes (12.63%), gur (0.89%) and electricity charges for Q1 (11.71%).
The commodities that witnessed increase in prices included onions (184.91%), tomatoes (180.60%), lpg (92.33%), garlic (81.67%), mustard oil (66.66%), pulse masoor (64.36%), cooking oil 5 litre (61.21%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (60.65%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (60.21%), washing soap (42.28%), petrol (37.42%) and diesel (29.63%).