Weekly inflation climbs by 1.35pc, food and fuel prices soar

ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) inflation rose by 1.35 percent in the week ending March 14, driven by higher prices of kitchen food items and fuel, official data showedon Friday.

The weekly inflation rate has been on an upward trend over the past month, reaching a year-on-year peak of 32.89 percent during the reviewed week, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed.

The index, which tracks 51 items, showed that 18 items became more expensive, 10 became cheaper, and 23 remained unchanged. In a span of one week, the prices of tomatoes increased by 21.96 percent, bananas by 21.76 percent, eggs by 7.15 percent, onions by 5.6 percent, LPG by 4.45 percent, garlic by 3.6 percent, mutton by 1.7 percent, beef by 1.5 percent, and chicken prices increased by 1.4 percent.

On the other hand, a one percent decrease was observed in the prices of cooking oil (5 Litre), vegetable ghee (2.5 Kg), and wheat flour. Sugar prices were also reduced by 0.64 percent, Gur by 0.57 percent, rice (basmati broken) by 0.50 percent, pulse masoor by 0.17 percent, and pulse mash reduced by 0.15 percent over the previous week.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all

three quantiles, while it increased across two quantiles.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group earning (up to Rs 17,732/month) increased by

27.83 percent, while the highest income group (over Rs 44,175/month) recorded an increase of 28.9 percent.

The SPI bulletin further showed that on a year-on-year basis, prices of gas charges for Q1 increased by 570 percent, tomatoes by 186 percent, onions by 90 percent, chili powder by 82 percent, garlic by 60 percent, gents’ sponge chappal by 58 percent, gents’ sandal by 53 percent, wheat flour by 52 percent, gur by 41 percent, sugar by 37 percent, and salt powder was expensive by 35 percent over last year.

Whereas, some items' prices fell, including cooking oil (5 Litre) prices by 21 percent, vegetable ghee (1 Kg) by 19 percent, vegetable ghee (2.5 Kg) by 18 percent, mustard oil by 15 percent, and bananas by 4 percent.