ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation snapped a two-week losing streak and increased by 1.16 percent for the week ended on December 07. According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, inflation on a year-on-year basis increased by 42.68 percent during the week as compared to the corresponding period of the last year. Earlier in the preceding two weeks, inflation came down by 0.23 percent for the week ended on November 30 and 0.06 percent for the week ended on November 23. The inflation for the week ended on December 07 for the lowest income group (Q1) witnessed a decrease of 0.17 percent, while it went up by 34.79 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same group. TLTP
For the other four income groups, the weekly inflation increased from -0.14 percent (Q2) to 1.65 percent (Q5), while it went up from 39.83 percent (Q2) to 46.37 percent (Q3) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to the PBS, the combined index was at 311.78 on December 07, 2023 as compared to 308.20 on November 30, 2023, while the index was recorded at 218.52 a year ago on December 08, 2022.
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 15 (29.41%) items increased, prices of 14 (27.45%) items decreased, and prices of 22 (43.14%) items remained stable.
The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of items including onions (8.42%), eggs (2.52%), electricity charges for Q1 (2.03%), pulse Moong (0.88%), sugar (0.84%), bananas (0.67%), firewood (0.55%), LPG (0.42%), tea prepared (0.37%), pulse Masoor (0.10%), mustard oil (0.09%) and curd (0.02%).
On the other hand, a major decrease was observed in the prices of items including tomatoes (9.82%), potatoes (4.34%), chicken (2.99%), tea Lipton (2.58%), diesel (2.31%), rice basmati broken (2.00%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (0.43%), cooking oil 5-liter (0.38%), wheat flour (0.35%), pulse gram (0.27%) and vegetable ghee 1-kg (0.16%).
According to the PBS data, the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 42.68 percent, including gas charges for Q1 (1108.59%), cigarettes (94.20%), wheat flour (85.05%), chili powder (81.74%), garlic (73.09%), rice basmati broken (68.53%), rice Irri 6/9 (60.94%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), gents sandal (53.37%), gur (50.56%), tea Lipton (44.65%) and pulse Mash (44.04%).
On a year-on-year basis, a major decrease was observed in the prices of onions (22.59%), tomatoes (6.97%), mustard oil (4.04%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (3%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (1.30%) and bananas (0.01%).
