ISLAMABAD
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation decreased 0.43 percent while it went 19.82 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to data released by the PBS on Friday, the SPI-based weekly inflation for the week ended on January 13, 2022 for the lowest income group witnessed a 0.30 percent decrease, while it went 20.89 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same income group.
On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 17.72 percent and 20.89 percent.
Yearly inflation for the group having monthly income from Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 (Q4) increased by 17.72 percent while the highest income group having monthly income above Rs44,175 recorded an increase of 20.10 percent.
According to the PBS, the combined index was at 167.39 on January 13, 2022 as compared to 168.12 on January 06, 2021 while the index was recorded at 139.70 a year ago on January 14, 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 comprises 51 essential items and the prices are being collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.
During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 16 (31.37%) items increased, prices of 09 (17.65%) items decreased, and prices of 26 (50.98%) items remained stable.
The SPI for the current week recorded a decrease in the prices of food items including chicken (3.40%), eggs (2.99%), potatoes (1.65%), tomatoes (1.26%), wheat flour (0.61%), garlic (0.47%), sugar (0.17%) and curd (0.16%), and non-food item including LPG (1.15%) with joint impact of (-0.38%) into the overall SPI for combined group of (-0.43%).
On the other hand, an increase was observed in the prices of onions (14.65%), bananas (1.51%), firewood (1.30%) and match box (1.14%).
According to the PBS data, the year on year trend depicts an overall increase of 19.82 percent in electricity for Q1 (84.86%), cooking oil 5-litre (53.49%), gents sponge chappal (50.25%), LPG (50.18%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (49.68%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (49.34%), washing soap & mustard oil (45.85%) each, gents sandal (44.49%), pulse Masoor (39.14%), petrol (36.13%) and diesel (28.07%), while major decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (40.82%), pulse Moong (25.37%), chillies powdered (6.71%) and sugar (0.40%).
