Higher petroleum prices fuel weekly inflation up by 0.76%

Short-term inflation increased by 0.76% for the week ended on July 18, 2024, mainly fueled by higher petroleum prices, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). 

Measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) the weekly inflation rose to 24.36% for the week under review over the corresponding week in 2023. 

The current weekly SPI has been computed with base 2015-16=100 covering 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups/quintiles. It is computed every week to assess the price movement of essential commodities at shorter intervals of time so as to review the price situation in the country. 

As per PBS data, a major increase was observed in the prices of Chicken (10.26%), Powdered Milk (4.56%), Petrol (3.77%), Eggs (2.76%), Potatoes (2.30%), Diesel (2.25%) and Garlic (2.20%). 

Prices were dropped for Tomatoes (4.45%), Bananas (2.25%), Onions (0.99%), Pulse Masoor (0.19%) and LPG (0.12%) during the week under review.  

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 29 (56.87%) items increased, 05 (9.80%) items decreased and 17 (33.33%) items remained stable.

The year-on-year (YoY) trend depicts an increase of 24.36%, Gas Charges for Q1 (570.00%), Onions (105.46%), Tomatoes (57.70%), Powered Milk (39.15%), Pulse Gram (38.55%), Garlic (36.05%), Chilies Powder (28.98%), Pulse Moong (28.48%), Gents Sandal (25.01%), Shirting (24.97%), Salt Powder (24.61%), LPG (23.11%), Pulse Mash (22.73%), Beef (22.38%), and Electricity Charges for Q1 (21.46%).

A decrease was observed in the prices of Wheat Flour (31.62%), Cooking Oil 5 Litre (14.37%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (11.25%), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (10.63%), Mustard Oil (8.63%), Eggs (2.99%), Rice Basmati Broken (2.93%) and Tea Lipton (2.52%).