Weekly inflation slips 0.03pc

KARACHI: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ending November 28 reveals a marginal decline of 0.03 per cent, reflecting slight changes in the prices of key commodities, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

On the downside, prices for chicken, tomatoes, pulse gram, and pulse masoor saw notable decreases, with chicken dropping by 3.78 per cent and tomatoes falling by 2.23 per cent. Other items such as rice basmati broken, gur, and pulse moong also saw modest price reductions. On the other hand, several essentials, including potatoes, garlic, bananas and vegetable ghee, experienced price increases. Potatoes saw the largest rise, increasing by 3.34 per cent, followed by garlic (up 1.69 per cent) and bananas (up 1.13 per cent).

Looking at year-on-year changes, the SPI increased by 5.13 per cent, indicating a significant rise in the cost of living compared to the same week in 2023. Some of the sharpest price increases were observed in pulse gram, which soared by 66.4 per cent, tomatoes, which jumped by 42.08 per cent, and pulse moong, which rose by 38.38 per cent. Powdered milk and beef saw considerable increases of 25.74 per cent and 23.74 per cent, respectively. In contrast, certain items experienced a year-on-year decline, most notably wheat flour, which dropped by 35.17 per cent, and diesel and petrol, which saw decreases of 13.92 per cent and 11.64 per cent, respectively.

The data also highlights variations in inflation across different income groups. For the lowest income group (Q1, earning up to Rs17,732), the SPI increased by 3.74 per cent from the previous year, while for the highest income group (Q5, earning above Rs44,175), the increase was slightly higher at 5.58 per cent. Despite these overall increases, households in the middle-income brackets experienced more modest changes in SPI, with Q2 (Rs17,733-Rs22,888) and Q3 (Rs22,889-Rs29,517) both recording SPI increases of around 3.8 per cent year-on-year.