Inflation up 0.54pc for the week

ISLAMABAD: Inflation, calculated through Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), increased 0.54 percent for the combined income group during the week ended on October 4, 2018, numbers released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday.

The SPI for was up at 230.40 points against 229.17 points registered last week. On a year-on-year basis, the inflation jumped 2.02 percent in the week under review, compared to the same period last year.

The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator has been computed with base 2007-08=100, covering 17 urban centers and 53 essential items for all income groups and combined. Meanwhile, the SPI for the lowest income group up to Rs8,000 also increased 0.40 percent as it went up from 217.39 points in the previous week to 218.27 points in the week under review.

Compared to the last week, the Sensitive Price Indicator for the income groups from Rs8,001-12,000, Rs12,001-18,000, Rs18,001-35,000, and above Rs35,000 also increased 1.07 percent, 1.33 percent, 0.80 percent, and 2.97 percent respectively. During the week under review average prices of seven items decreased, that of 17 increased, while they remained unchanged for the rest of 29 items.

The items, whose prices eased during the week included onion, potatoes, bananas, sugar, pulse masoor, pulse maash and pulse gram. The items, whose average prices ticked up included chicken farm (alive), cigarettes, tomatoes, eggs (hen), garlic, liquefied petroleum gas, wheat flour, pulse moong, beef, shirting, cooking oil (tin), powder milk, wheat, red chily, vegetable ghee (loose), and vegetable ghee (tin).

The items, whose average prices kept the status quo were: rice basmati (broken), rice (irri-6), bread (plain), mutton, milk fresh, curd, mustard oil (tin), salt powder, tea prepared, cooked beef, cooked daal (pulse), long cloth, lawn (printed), georgette, gents’ sandal and

chappal (slippers), ladies’ sandal, electricity charges, gas charges, kerosene oil, firewood (whole), electricity bulb, washing soap, petrol, match box, high speed diesel, telephone call charges, and bathing soap.