The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended August 16, 2023, increased by 0.78 percent over the previous week while on a year-on-year basis, it posted an increase of 27.57, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 32 (62.75 percent) items increased, 7 (13.72 percent) items decreased and 12 (23.53 percent) items remained stable.
Some of the items which recorded an increase in their average prices during the week over the previous include rice irri-6/9 (7.48 percent), hi-speed diesel (7.29 percent), petrol super (6.40 percent), garlic (5.06 percent), sugar refined (4.02 percent), gur (3.23 percent), rice basmati broken (3.06 percent), chicken (2.83 percent), bananas (2.72 percent), pulse mash (2.65 percent), onions (2.19 percent), pulse moong (2.12 percent), eggs (1.82 percent), pulse masoor (0.99 percent), tea prepared (0.83 percent), cooked daal (0.81 percent), cooked beef (0.78 percent), LPG (0.62 percent), potatoes (0.61 percent), pulse gram (0.44 percent), mutton (0.39 percent), matchbox (0.18 percent), and milk fresh (0.02 percent).
The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices during the week over the previous include tomatoes (13.60 percent), cooking oil dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each (1.65 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib 2.5 kg tin each (0.85 percent), vegetable ghee dalda/habib or other superior quality 1 kg pouch each (0.43 percent), firewood whole 40 kg (0.42 percent), mustard oil (0.23 percent) and wheat flour bag 20 kg (0.19 percent).
Year-on-year trend
The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 27.57 percent mainly due to increase in the prices of wheat flour (131.29 percent), gas charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), cigarettes (106.89 percent), tea lipton (95.19 percent), rice basmati broken (88.76 percent), chilies powder (86.05 percent), rice irri6/9 (84.16 percent), sugar (74.71 percent), gur (63.00 percent), chicken (58.56 percent), potatoes (56.30 percent) and salt powdered (49.09 percent), while decrease was observed in the prices onions (28.85 percent), electricity for Q1 (21.96 percent), pulse masoor (14.85 percent) and vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.20 percent).
