Weekly inflation up by 0.94pc, rises for fourth straight week

ISLAMABAD: Weekly inflation, as measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose for the fourth consecutive week, inching up by 0.94 per cent in the week ending June 20, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday.

Last week, the increase was 1.3 per cent, and a week earlier it was 0.45 per cent increase. Before that, it was a 0.11 percent uptick on a week-on-week (WoW) basis.The SPI which gauges mostly kitchen item prices every week indicated that this week’s rise was mostly due to the significant hike in prices of tomatoes, potatoes, and onions.

On year-on-year, the SPI increased by 23.78 per cent over the same week of last year’s price indicator.The SPI tracked the prices of 51 essential items and found that 25 items’ prices increased, five decreased, and the other 21 prices were unchanged over the previous week.

The weekly percentage change by income groups showed that the lowest income group experienced a weekly uptick of 1.58 per cent, while the highest income group experienced a fall of 0.69 per cent.

On a yearly basis too, the SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 17.52 per cent and 26.97 per cent. Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 17.52 per cent while the highest income group recorded an increase of 21.34 per cent.

In one week, a notable increase was recorded in the prices of tomatoes which increased by 65.8 per cent to Rs159/kg; potatoes by 5.6 per cent to Rs98/kg; onions by 3.78 per cent to Rs132/kg; bananas by 3.3 per cent to Rs165/dozen; LPG by 2.44 per cent to Rs2,872/11.67kg cylinder; cigarettes capstan by 1.67 per cent to Rs230/20’s packet; pulse moong by 1.53 per cent to Rs314/kg; garlic by 1.29 per cent to Rs478/kg; and fresh milk by 1.0 per cent to Rs190/kg. Besides, egg prices increased by 0.83 per cent; georgette by 0.28 per cent; and shirting prices by 0.17 per cent.

Items whose prices reduced include petrol by 3.76 per cent; diesel by 0.84 per cent; basmati rice (broken) and masoor pulse by 0.08 per cent each.

On a year-on-year basis, gas prices hiked by 570 per cent for the lowest consumer slab, followed by a 191 per cent spike in tomato prices. Similarly, onion prices increased by 123 per cent; chilies powder by 55 per cent; and garlic by 41 per cent.

Shirting prices also increased by 31 per cent, powder salt by 29 per cent, gents’ sandals by 25 per cent, and gram and mash pulses by 23 per cent each. Likewise, beef was expensive by 22 per cent and electricity for the lowest slab (Q1) was 21 per cent costlier over the previous year.

Conversely, on a year-on-year, wheat flour was cheaper by 33 per cent; chicken by 21 per cent; cooking oil 5-litre by 16 per cent; vegetable ghee by 13 per cent; bananas 12 per cent; mustard oil by 8.0 per cent; tea Lipton 2.5 per cent; and petrol by 1.4 per cent over the prices of the same week last year.