Weekly Inflation up by 0.96%

APP

Islamabad: The weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) witnessed an increase of 0.96 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on April 4, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 326.29 points, as compared to 323.20 points during the past week.

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 29.45 percent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015–16 =100 covers 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The SPI for the lowest consumption group, up to Rs. 17,732, increased by 0.83 percent and went down to 315.95 points from last week’s 313.35 points.

The SPI for consumption groups from Rs. 17,732-22,888, Rs. 22,889-29,517, Rs. 29,518-44,175 and above, increased by 0.90 percent, 0.85 percent, 0.93 percent, and 1.02 percent, respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, the prices of 16 (31.37%) increased, 13 (25.49%) decreased, and 22 (43.14%) remained stable.

The items that recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included bananas (3.57%), wheat flour (2.68%), eggs and LPG (1.89%) each, diesel (1.18%), gur (0.63%), sugar (0.41%), mustard oil (0.26%), pulse masoor (0.25%), and potatoes (0.23%).

On a year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed a decrease included ladies sandals (12.52%), tomatoes (11.93%), gentleman sandals (8.70%), petrol (3.45%), chicken (2.99%), long cloth (2.23%), onion (1.30%), bread (1.03%), beef (0.75%), garlic (0.70%), mutton (0.41%), and rice basmati broken (0.14%).

The commodities that recorded a decrease in their average prices on a year-on-year basis included bananas (26.68%), cooking oil 5 liters (20.53%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (17.61%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (17.28%), mustard oil (14.22%), wheat flour (5.86%), diesel (3.61%), and cigarettes (0.06%).

The commodities that recorded an increase in their average prices were: gas charges for Q1 (570.00%), onions (107.59%), chili powder (86.05%), gents sandal (66.71%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), garlic (53.51%), tomatoes (35.77%), gur (34.00%), salt powder (32.78%), energy saver (29.83%), pulse mash (26.98%), and tea prepared (23.34%).