Weekly inflation hits 33% amid rising food prices

The latest data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows a significant rise in short-term inflation, reaching 32.89% year-on-year for the week ending March 14.

This increase is attributed primarily to the escalating prices of vegetables and other food items.

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which gauges weekly price fluctuations, experienced a 1.35% increase compared to the previous week. This marks the third consecutive week where the SPI has exceeded 32%.

Key contributors to the weekly price rise include tomatoes, which saw a 21.96% increase, followed by bananas at 21.76%, eggs at 7.15%, and onions at 5.57%.

Other items like LPG, garlic, mutton, beef, chicken, and georgette also experienced price hikes.

Yearly analysis reveals the most significant price increases in gas charges for Q1, which surged by 570%, and tomatoes, which rose by 185.68%.

Other notable increases were observed in onions, chili powder, garlic, men's sponge chappals, men's sandals, wheat flour, gur, and sugar.

Conversely, some products saw price reductions on a weekly basis, including cooking oil, vegetable ghee, wheat flour, sugar, gur, rice basmati broken, pulse masoor, and pulse mash.

On an annual scale, decreases were noted in items such as cooking oil, vegetable ghee, mustard oil, bananas, diesel, and cigarettes.

The SPI's latest reading stood at 327.21, up from 322.86 the previous week and significantly higher than the 246.22 recorded a year ago, underscoring the ongoing inflationary pressures in the country.