ISLAMABAD
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation surged massively by 9.95 percent for the week ended on November 16.
According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, inflation on a year-on-year basis increased to 41.90 percent during the week as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.
The inflation for the week ended on November 16 for the lowest income group (Q1) witnessed an increase of 6.63 percent, while it went up by 35.72 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same group. For the other four income groups, the weekly inflation increased from 8.07 percent (Q5) to 12.80 percent (Q3), while it went up from 39.67 percent (Q5) to 45.83 percent (Q3) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to the PBS, the combined index was at 309.09 on November 16, 2023 as compared to 281.12 on November 08, 2023 while the index was recorded at 217.82 a year ago on November 17, 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 2015-16100 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 25 (49.02%) items increased, prices of 13 (25.49%) items decreased, and prices of 13 (25.49%) items remained stable.
The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of items including gas (480.00%), tea Lipton (8.88%), pulse Masoor (5.28%), chicken (3.99%), garlic (3.09%), salt powdered (2.93%), wheat flour (2.64%), tea prepared (2.07%), LPG (2.03%), potatoes (2.00%), and shirting (1.10%).
On the other hand, a major decrease was observed in the prices of items including electricity charges (16.06%), tomatoes (11.16%), sugar (4.24%), diesel (2.15%), onions (1.49%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (1.39%), petrol (0.73%), cooking oil 5-litre (0.65%), rice Irri-6/9 (0.42%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (0.28%) and gur (0.27%).
According to the PBS data, the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 41.90 percent, including gas charges for Q1 (1108.59%), cigarettes (94.46%), wheat flour (86.41%), chillies powder (81.74%), rice basmati broken (76.70%), garlic (63.56%), rice Irri-6/9 (61.91%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), tea Lipton (54.57%), gents sandal (53.37%), gur (51.01%), sugar (49.96%) and salt powder (46.37%).
On a year-on-year basis, a major decrease was observed in the prices of onions (36.22%), tomatoes (14.02%), mustard oil (3.95%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (2.05%) and pulse gram (0.49%).
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.
