The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), increased by 1.29% for the combined consumption groups during the week ending September 2, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The SPI for the week under review was recorded at 335.41 points, up from 331.14 points in the previous week. Compared to the same week last year, the SPI saw a rise of 5.07%.
The weekly SPI, based on the 2015-16=100 base year, covers 17 urban centres and tracks 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The SPI for the lowest consumption group, earning up to Rs17,732, increased by 2.01%, rising to 327.73 points from 321.82 points last week. Other consumption groups, including Rs17,733 to Rs22,888, Rs22,889 to Rs29,517, Rs29,518 to Rs44,175, and above Rs44,175, saw increases of 1.90%, 1.61%, 1.48%, and 0.99%, respectively.
Out of the 51 items tracked, 23 (45.10%) showed price increases, 4 (7.84%) saw price decreases, and 24 (47.06%) remained stable.
Key items with major weekly price increases included tomatoes (46.03%), wheat flour (25.41%), onions (8.57%), basmati rice broken (2.62%), garlic (2.04%), potatoes (1.38%), moong pulse (1.29%), bread (1.19%), LPG (0.88%), shirting (0.27%), long cloth (0.17%), and lawn printed (0.07%).
Items that recorded significant weekly price decreases included bananas (-3.86%), diesel (-0.91%), sugar (-0.13%), and mustard oil (-0.10%).
On a year-on-year basis, the largest price increases were seen in tomatoes (83.45%), ladies’ sandals (55.62%), wheat flour (30.27%), gas charges for Q1 (29.85%), sugar (27.43%), gur (13.21%), beef (13.15%), moong pulse (12.99%), firewood (11.47%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (11.36%), chicken (10.89%), and lawn printed (7.72%).
The items showing year-on-year price decreases included onions (-47.00%), garlic (-25.50%), mash pulse (-22.93%), potatoes (-19.25%), gram pulse (-19.04%), electricity charges for Q1 (-18.12%), tea packets (-17.93%), masoor pulse (-6.07%), IRRI rice (4.60%), and LPG (-3.71%).
