Weekly inflation up 0.22pc as food prices climb

KARACHI: Weekly inflation for the combined group accelerated by 0.22 percent in the period ended on August 26 as food prices rose at a higher pace, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday.

The PBS report attributed the change to increase in prices of chicken (9.52 percent), pulse masoor (9.32 percent), onions (7.55 percent), garlic (5.21 percent), bananas (5.02 percent, pulse mash (3.33 percent), eggs (2.96 percent), pulse gram (2.85 percent), mustard oil (2.02 percent), and vegetable ghee 1kg (1.80 percent).

Chicken prices went up by Rs15.3 WoW and Rs48.69 YoY to record at Rs176.02/kg from Rs160.72 during the previous week and Rs127.33 in the same week last year.

The joint impact of these changes was 0.64 percent in overall SPI, as a result of which all five expenditure groups experienced increase in WoW and YoY inflation. For the week under review, SPI was recorded at 152.14 points against 151.80 points registered previously.

Decrease was noted in the prices of tomatoes (29.88 percent), LPG (2.63 percent), and potatoes (2.11 percent).

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.

During the week, prices of 22 items increased, 5 decreased, while prices of 24 items remained unchanged.

The YoY trend depicted 12.67 percent spike on account of LPG (57.28 percent), electricity for Q1 (46.55 percent), chicken (38.24 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (37.90 percent), mustard oil (36.72 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (36.28 percent), chilli powder (35.71 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (34.84 percent), eggs (33.81 percent), gents sandal (33.37 percent), gents sponge chappal (25.13 percent), washing soap (21.72 percent), and matchbox (6.66 percent). A major decrease was observed in the prices of potatoes (25.43 percent), pulse moong (19.17 percent), and tomatoes (6.66 percent).

PBS data attributes different weightages to the commodities in the SPI basket.

It showed that the price of 11.67kg LPG cylinder, with 1.437 percent weight in the combined group, declined by Rs53.36 to Rs1,973.38 during the week, although it increased by Rs718.71 compared to the same week last year.

The impact of these price changes has been the worst in YoY terms on those spending up to Rs17,732. SPI for the lowest expenditure group went up 15.86 percent YoY and 0.20 WoW. It went up to 163.94 points from 163.62 points last week.

SPI for the groups spending Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175; and above Rs44,175 showed an increase of 0.24, 0.29, and 0.31 percent, respectively. The lowest WoW impact was on the highest spending group, which faced an increase of 0.15 percent in SPI.