Pakistan records 0.35% drop in weekly inflation

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday that the weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), dropped by 0.35 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ending March 20, ARY News reported.

The PBS data recorded the SPI for the week under review at 319.62 points, down from 320.75 points in the previous week.

The SPI for the combined consumption group decreased by 1.20 percent compared to the same week last year. The weekly SPI, based on the 2015-16 index (100), monitors 51 essential items across 17 urban centers for all expenditure groups.

The SPI for the lowest consumption group (up to Rs 17,732) decreased by 0.39 percent, dropping to 308.43 points from last week’s 309.65 points.

The SPI decreased by 0.35 percent for consumption groups earning Rs 17,732 to 22,888, by 0.39 percent for those earning Rs 22,889 to 29,517, by 0.40 percent for the Rs 29,518 to 44,175 group, and by 0.36 percent for those earning above Rs 44,175.

During the week, prices rose for 11 out of 51 items (21.57%), dropped for 18 items (35.29%), and remained unchanged for 22 items (43.14%).

Tomatoes recorded the highest price drop of 7.08%, followed by onions (6.07%), garlic (5.59%), eggs (4.64%), potatoes (2.50%), pulse gram (1.60%), Lipton tea (1.30%), sugar (0.87%), and firewood (0.60%) on a week-on-week basis.

Lawn printed fabric saw the highest price increase of 2.90%, followed by LPG (1.53%), bananas (1.45%), long cloth (1.23%), bread (0.55%), cigarettes (0.27%), beef (0.25%), curd (0.24%), and salt powder (0.03%) on a week-on-week basis.

On a year-on-year basis, onion prices dropped by 67.67%, followed by wheat flour (35.58%), tomatoes (29.45%), chili powder (20.00%), electricity charges for Q1 (18.92%), Lipton tea (16.98%), pulse mash (13.96%), pulse masoor (11.69%), basmati broken rice (9.81%), diesel (9.37%), petrol (8.55%), and LPG (5.30%).

On a year-on-year basis, the prices of ladies’ sandals surged by 75.09%, followed by pulse moong (26.96%), powdered milk (25.75%), beef (21.01%), sugar (18.65%), chicken (18.23%), pulse gram (17.83%), vegetable ghee (1 kg) (16.13%), bananas (15.73%), printed lawn (12.28%), shirting (12.20%), and georgette (11.20%).