SPI up 0.54pc WoW, balloons 18.89pc YoY

KARACHI: Weekly sensitive price indicator (SPI) for the combined income group increased for the fourth consecutive week, going up 0.54 percent week-on-week and jumping 18.89 percent year-on-year for the week ended April 15, 2021, data showed on Friday.

Inflation report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said the increase was mainly on account of higher food and utility prices, with the worst YoY impact felt by those spending up to Rs17,732. For this quintile, SPI was up 22.64 percent YoY and and 0.55 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.

For the fourth consecutive week, all consumption groups witnessed an increase in SPI.

Inflation for the second quintile went up 0.55 percent from 148.69 points to 149.51 points in the week ended April 15, 2021. For this consumption group, YoY inflation was up 19.775 percent.

The group spending Rs22,889-29,517 saw WoW increase of 0.51 percent and YoY spike of 18.54 percent.

SPI increased 0.52 percent WoWand 18.6 percent YoY for the consumption group spending Rs29,518-44,175, whereas the quintile that spent more than Rs44,175 witnessed a rise of 0.56 percent WoW and 17.57 percent YoY.

During the week, prices of 16 items increased, 11 decreased, while prices of 24 items remained unchanged.

Items with a joint impact of 0.60 percent on the WoW increase were bananas (15.49 percent), telephone call charges (15.48 percent), tomatoes (15.02 percent), potatoes (7.42 percent) and wheat flour bag (2.71 percent).

On the other hand decrease was observed in the prices of garlic (3.98 percent), pulse gram (2.58 percent), pulse moong(2.19 percent), pulse masoor(1.72 percent), pulse maash(1.60 percent), LPG (1.20 percent), gur (0.86 percent), eggs (0.76 percent), sugar (0.74 percent), rice Irri-6 (0.72 percent) and onions (0.53 percent).

The YoY trend depicted an increase of 18.89 percent mainly due to the prices of chili powder (139.64 percent), chicken (91.53 percent), tomatoes (76.99 percent), electricity for Q1 (67.03 percent), eggs (46.89 percent), bananas (35.13 percent), gents sandal (33.37 percent), mustard oil (30.66 percent), match box (30.47 percent), gents sponge chappal (25.13 percent), vegetable ghee (22.22 percent) and shirting (21.83 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).