ISLAMABAD
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation made an uptick of 0.73 percent for the week ended on November 08. According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, inflation on a year-on-year basis increased to 29.86 percent during the week as compared to the corresponding period of the last year. The inflation for the week ended on November 8 for the lowest income group (Q1) witnessed an increase of 1.05 percent, while it went up by 28.51 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same group. For the other four income groups, the weekly inflation increased from 0.59 percent (Q5) to 1.02 percent (Q2), while it went up from 28.74 percent (Q2) to 30.23 percent (Q3) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to the PBS, the combined index was at 281.12 on November 08, 2023 as compared to 279.08 November 02, 2023 while the index was recorded at 216.48 a year ago on November 10, 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 20 (39.22%) items increased, prices of 8 (15.69%) items decreased, and prices of 23 (45.09%) items remained stable.
The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of food items including tomatoes (15.43%), potatoes (4.47%), wheat flour (2.36%), garlic (2.16%), salt powdered (1.82%), chicken (1.60%), tea Lipton (0.96%), and banana (0.94%), and non-food items including Georgette (0.95%) and shirting (0.58%).
On the other hand, a major decrease was observed in the prices of food items including gur (2.43%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (0.36%), rice Irri6/9 (0.34%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (0.25%), rice basmati broken (0.13%), cooking oil 5-litre (0.13%), pulse Mash (0.12%) and pulse Moong (0.05%).
According to the PBS data, the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 29.86 percent, including gas charges for Q1 (108.38%), cigarettes (94.46%), chili’s powder (84.11%), wheat flour (81.23%), rice basmati broken (77.93%), rice Irri-6/9 (60.65%), garlic (58.23%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), sugar (57.57%), gents sandal Bata (53.37%), salt (53.02%) and gur (50.88%)
On a year-on-year basis, a major decrease was observed in the prices of onions (32.27%), tomatoes (9.08%), mustard oil (3.88%), pulse gram (2.80%), and vegetable ghee 1-kg (1.69%).
Earlier, inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), surged by 26.89 percent year-on-year in October, according to data released by the PBP on Wednesday last. On a month-on-month basis, the CPI inflation increased by 1.08pc in October.
According to the PBS data, urban and rural inflation increased 1.07pc and 1.01pc MoM, respectively. However, some respite came in the form of fuel price cuts and a price-control mechanism announced in October. On a month on month basis, inflation has slowed down to 1.08pc versus the last three months averaging 2.4pc. The October inflation was mainly fueled by an increase in food prices.
