SPI up 0.60pc WoW, 18.43 percent YoY

KARACHI: Weekly sensitive price indicator (SPI) ended April 8, 2021 increased 0.6 percent week-on-week and hit a high of 18.43 percent year-on-year for the combined expenditure groups mainly on account of a spike in prices of food and other essential commodities, data showed on Friday.

Inflation report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said the highest YoY impact was suffered by the first consumption quintile, which has the lowest spending capacity of up to Rs17,732. For the first quintile, SPI was up 21.97 percent YoY and and 0.51 percent WoW.

SPI is computed on weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country. It comprises of 51 essential items and the prices are collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.

This week, all consumption groups witnessed an increase in SPI. For the group that consumes up to Rs17,732, SPI was up 0.51 percent from 157.93 points in last week to 158.74 points during the week under review.

Inflation for the second quintile went up 0.53 percent from 147.90 points to 148.69 points in the week ended April 8, 2021. For this consumption group, YoY inflation was up 19.14 percent.

The group spending Rs22,889-29,517 saw WoW increase of 0.61 percent and YoY spike of 18.06 percent. Itincreased 0.69 percent WoWand 18.16 percent YoY for the consumption group spending Rs29,518-44,175, whereas the quintile that spent more than Rs44,175 witnessed a rise of 0.61 percent WoW and 17.15 percent YoY.

During the week, prices of 18 items increased, 13 decreased, while prices of 20 items remained unchanged.

Items with a joint impact of 0.85 percent on the WoW increase were chicken (11.21 percent), potatoes (9.98 percent), tomatoes (7.51 percent) and bananas (4.99 percent). Commodities that recorded a decrease in prices included, sugar (3.07 percent), LPG (2.28 percent), garlic (2.27 percent), eggs (1.41 percent), firewood (1.32 percent), electricity for Q1 (1.28 percent), and wheat flour bag (0.69 percent).

The YoYtrend depicted an increase of 18.43 percent mainly due to the prices of chili powder (139.64 percent), electricity for Q1 (67.03 percent), tomatoes (55.43 percent), eggs (40.90 percent), gents sandal (33.37 percent), match box (30.47 percent), mustard oil (30.21 percent), gents sponge chappal (25.13 percent), and vegetable ghee (21.88 percent). A major decrease was observed in the prices of garlic (38.82 percent), onions (38.15 percent), pulse moong (16.47 percent), pulse gram (6.69 percent), and pulse masoor (6.01 percent).