Weekly inflation up 0.61pc

Weekly inflation for the combined group in the period ended on March 25 increased by 0.61 per cent on the back of an uptick in prices of essential food items, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

As per a report by Dawn based on PBS statistics, a week-on-week (WoW) increase in inflation was noticed after a drop for the past second consecutive week.

For the lowest income group earning below Rs17,732 per month, the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) increased by 0.52pc. For the group earning above Rs44,175, SPI recorded an increase of 0.61pc.

This was mainly due to an increase in prices of food items including tomatoes 20.04pc, chicken 8.81pc, bread 1.64pc, bananas 1.55pc and wheat flour bag 1.01pc.

The items whose prices decreased during the week included garlic, which recorded a decline of 8.12pc, onions 2.27pc, potatoes 1.98pc, pulse moong (0.54pc), rice basmati broken (0.28pc) and brown sugar 0.20pc.

Among non-food items, the price of LPG declined 0.66pc.