Weekly inflation eases by 0.60pc as power prices decline

KARACHI: Consumers continued to suffer under the burden of rising prices of commodities as the sensitive price indicator (SPI) inflation remained up 44.61 percent year-on-year despite easing 0.60 percent week-on-week.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in its data issued on Friday attributed the decline in SPI to the drop in prices of tomatoes (22.43 percent), onions (15.85 percent), electricity charges for Q1 (4.95 percent), wheat flour (2.75 percent), garlic (1.29 percent), pulse gram (0.82 percent), pulse moong (0.35 percent) and mustard oil and firewood (0.09 percent).

On the other hand major increase was observed in the prices of potatoes (8.59 percent), LPG (4.47 percent), eggs (2.65 percent), shirting (2.39 percent), chicken (2.19 percent), georgette (2.10 percent), washing soap (1.83 percent), bananas (1.64 percent), pulse mash (1.45 percent), gur (1.25 percent) and cooked beef (1.15 percent).

For the week under review, SPI was recorded at 250.56 points against 252.06 points registered last week and 173.27 points recorded during the week ended April 14, 2022.

On April 10, 2022 a coalition of political parties had ousted former prime minister Imran Khan on a vote of no confidence citing poor economic performance and dilapidated social conditions. Inflation data released on April 14, 2022, only 3 days after the ouster of the former prime minister showed WoW SPI was down 0.68 percent while YoY inflation was up 16.44 percent.

Over the last few years, prices of commodities have jumped up significantly, burdening the masses, particularly those facing stagnant wages or unemployment. However, the current rise in prices is being considered unprecedented. Also, with Eid around the corner, analysts expect prices of food to remain high.

Different weightages are assigned to various commodities in the SPI basket. Commodities with the highest weights for the lowest quintile include milk (17.5449 percent), electricity (8.3627 percent), wheat flour (6.1372 percent), sugar (5.1148 percent), firewood (5.0183 percent), long cloth (4.2221 percent), and vegetable ghee (3.2833 percent).

Of these commodities, prices of milk, sugar, and vegetable ghee 2.5kg increased; electricity, wheat flour, and firewood decreased; whereas prices of long cloth and vegetable ghee 1kg pouch remained the same. However, the prices of all these commodities, except electricity went up on YoY basis.

PBS compiles SPI via collecting prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98 percent) items increased, 9 (17.65 percent) items decreased and prices of 16 (31.37 percent) items remained unchanged.

The PBS data attributed the YoY rise in SPI to the jump in the prices of cigarettes (152.11 percent), wheat flour (126.09 percent), gas charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), diesel (102.84 percent), eggs (99.37 percent), tea (97.63 percent), bananas (90.18 percent), potatoes (87.18 percent), broken basmati rice (84.46 percent), rice irri-6/9 (81.31 percent), petrol (81.17 percent), pulse moong (67.43 percent), pulse mash (58.54 percent) and plain bread (55.36 percent).

Decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (41.56 percent), chili powder (6.48 percent) and electricity charges for Q1 (1.60 percent).

For the groups spending up to Rs17,732; Rs17,733-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175; and above Rs44,175; YoY SPI increased 40.89, 43.57, 44.16, 44.64, and 46.31 percent respectively.