Weekly Inflation Increase by 1.24% Due to Rise in Food Items Prices

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended October 8, 2020, recorded an increase of 1.24 percent over last week due to a rise in food items i.e. tomatoes (16.39 percent), onions (12.78 percent), eggs (10.78 percent), chicken (5.34 percent), wheat flour bag (2.78 percent), potatoes (2.64 percent) and sugar (1.03 percent).

According to the latest data, released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the SPI went up from 139.01 points during the week ended October 1, 2020, to 140.73 points during the week under review.

The year on year trend depicts an increase of 11.28 percent with most of the items increased mainly tomatoes (117 percent), chilies powder (86.31 percent), potatoes (64.75 percent), pulse moong (41.13 percent), eggs (40.82 percent), pulse mash (34.66 percent), sugar (32.08 percent), pulse masoor (25.72 percent), bread (19.41 percent), gur (19.34 percent), wheat flour bag (18.32 percent), washing soap 250 gm (17.49 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (17.43 percent), match box (17.07 percent) and mustard oil (16.32 percent), while a major decrease was observed in the price of diesel (18.03 percent), LPG (13.53 percent), garlic (9.91 percent), petrol (8.11 percent) and onions (1.50 percent).

The weekly SPI covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 24 (47.06 percent) items increased, 04 (7.8 percent) items decreased and 23 (45.10 percent) items remained constant, according to the provisional figures released by the PBS.

The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs. 17,733, from Rs. 17,733 to Rs. 22,888, Rs. 22,889 to Rs. 29,517, Rs. 29,518 to Rs. 44,175 and above Rs. 44,175 per month increased by 1.56 percent, 1.53 percent, 1.40 percent, 1.34 percent, and 1.08 percent respectively.

The commodities, which recorded increase in their average price include tomatoes (16.39 percent), onions (12.78 percent), eggs hen (10.78 percent), chicken (5.34 percent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (2.78 percent), potatoes (2.64 percent), pulse masoor (1.21 percent), sugar (1.03 percent), pulse gram (0.83 percent), rice irri-6/9 (0.70 percent), energy saver (0.56 percent), curd (0.52 percent), rice basmati broken (0.52 percent), LPG (0.39 percent), powdered milk (0.32 percent), mutton (0.30 percent), garlic (0.28 percent), milk fresh (0.28 percent), shirting (0.27 percent), sufi washing soap (0.22 percent), beef with bone (0.17 percent), mustard oil (0.12 percent), cooking oil (0.07 percent) and tea prepared (0.04 percent).

The commodities, which recorded a decrease in their average price, include bananas (2.17 percent), pulse moong (0.40), pulse mash (0.13 percent) and gur (0.04).

Prices of the commodities that observed no change during the week under review include bread plain, vegetable ghee, salt powdered (national/shan), chilies powder national, tea lipton yellow label, cooked beef, cooked daal, cigarettes capstan, gul ahmed/al karam, lawn printed gul ahmed/al karam, georgette (average quality), gents sandal, gents sponge, ladies sandal, electricity charges, gas charges, firewood whole, match box, petrol super, hi-speed diesel, telephone call charges and toilet soap.