KARACHI: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) saw a marginal increase of 0.01 per cent for the week ending September 12, 2024. This slight uptick follows a 0.15 per cent decrease in the previous week.
The SPI, which monitors the prices of 51 essential commodities across 17 cities, indicated a year-on-year increase of 14.36 per cent during the same week, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported. The data reflected mixed movements in both food and non-food items.
Notable price hikes were recorded for tomatoes (6.62 per cent), electricity charges for Q1 (4.13 per cent), chicken (3.77 per cent), pulse gram (2.43 per cent), garlic (2.24 per cent), and several others.
Similarly, bananas experienced a significant drop of 6.04 per cent, followed by pulse mash (1.33 per cent), wheat flour (0.97 per cent), and LPG (0.96 per cent).
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 15 items increased, 14 decreased and 22 remained stable.
On a year-on-year basis, some commodities have seen dramatic price surges. Gas prices for the lowest consumer slab skyrocketed by 570 per cent, onion prices climbed by 88.26 per cent, and gram pulse by 55.76 per cent. Other notable year-on-year increases included milk powder by 25.72 per cent, and shirting by 21.45 per cent. Garlic prices increased by 19.5 per cent, salt powder by 15.94 per cent, and georgette fabric by 13.21 per cent compared to the same week last year.
Conversely, some items have become cheaper compared to a year ago. Wheat flour prices have dropped by 38.54 per cent, chili powder by 20 per cent, electricity charges for Q1 by 13.47 per cent, and cooking oil (5-litre) by 10.9 per cent.