Weekly inflation rises by 0.67%, with 4.92% annual increase: PBS

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), rose by 0.67% for the combined consumption groups during the week ending November 21, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). 

The PBS data revealed that the SPI for the week under review was recorded at 324.11 points, compared to 321.94 points in the previous week. On an annual basis, the SPI for the combined consumption group increased by 4.92% compared to the same week last year.

The SPI, with the base year 2015-16=100, covers 17 urban centers and tracks prices of 51 essential items across various expenditure groups.

For the lowest consumption group, earning up to Rs17,732 per month, the SPI saw a 0.91% increase, rising to 318.40 points from last week’s 315.52 points. 

Similarly, the SPI rose by 0.85%, 0.72%, 0.70%, and 0.61% for consumption groups earning Rs17,732–22,888, Rs22,889–29,517, Rs29,518–44,175, and above Rs44,175, respectively.

During the week, out of the 51 tracked items, the prices of 17 items (33.33%) increased, 11 items (21.57%) decreased, and 23 items (45.10%) remained stable.

Key commodities that saw price reductions on a week-on-week basis included chicken (down 2.97%), pulse gram (1.70%), LPG (0.80%), pulse masoor (0.62%), rice basmati broken (0.40%), sugar (0.27%), wheat flour (0.25%), pulse mash (0.23%), and rice irri-6/9 (0.22%).

Notable price increases included ladies’ sandals (55.62%), tomatoes (20.72%), potatoes (3.81%), garlic (3.42%), eggs (3.16%), vegetable ghee (1kg) (2.30%), vegetable ghee (2.5kg) (1.73%), mustard oil (1.28%), onions (0.98%), and shirting fabric (0.04%).

On a year-on-year basis, significant price drops were observed for wheat flour (down 35.49%), chili powder (20.00%), diesel (13.92%), petrol (11.64%), tea packet (11.07%), rice basmati broken (8.25%), pulse masoor (7.21%), bread (5.99%), electricity charges for Q1 (5.07%), sugar (3.67%), and cooking oil (5-liter packs) (2.98%).

Conversely, notable annual price hikes were recorded for ladies’ sandals (up 75.09%), pulse gram (70.95%), pulse moong (38.53%), powdered milk (25.74%), beef (23.79%), onions (21.05%), tomatoes (19.69%), garlic (16.08%), gas charges for Q1 (15.52%), shirting fabric (15.27%), mutton (14.80%), and georgette fabric (13.07%).