ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation surged 0.55 per cent, after going down for three weeks in a row.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, the SPI-based weekly inflation for the week ended on December 16, 2021 for the combined consumption group witnessed o.55 percent increase, while it went 19.49pc up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to the PBS, the combined index was at 168.16 on December 16 as compared to 167.24 on December 9, while the index was recorded at 140.73 a year ago on December 17.
During the week under review, the SPI recorded an increase in the prices of food items including pulse masoor at 4.11pc, salt 3.70pc, pulse gram 2.08pc, bananas 1.69pc, mustard oil 1.35pc, pulse maash 1.32pc, and non-food items including electricity for Q1 10.37pc and washing soap 1.23pc, with joint impact of 1.55pc into the overall SPI for combined group of 0.55pc.
On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of potatoes 15.52pc, tomatoes 12.65pc, chicken 5.94pc, onions 3.94pc, diesel 3.48pc, petrol 3.40pc, eggs 1.69pc, gur 1.34pc, sugar 1.29pc, chilies powdered 0.57pc, beef 0.54pc, pulse Moong 0.37pc, rice basmati broken 0.20pc, mutton 0.15pc and wheat flour 0.04pc.
According to the PBS data, the YoY trend depicts an overall increase of 19.49pc, with increase in electricity for Q1 at 83.95pc, LPG 65.26pc, cooking oil 5-litre 60.37pc, vegetable ghee 1-kg 57.56pc, vegetable ghee 2.5-kg 55.62pc, mustard oil 55.60pc, washing soap 45.75pc, petrol 35.42pc, chillies powdered 32.24pc, pulse Masoor 29.52pc and diesel 26.72pc, while major decrease was observed in the prices of onions 28.7pc, pulse moong 24.87pc, chicken 16.09pc, tomatoes 14.76pc, potatoes 14.58pc and eggs 9.86pc.
On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 17.59pc and 21.42pc. Yearly inflation for the lowest income group increased by 21.42pc while the highest income group recorded an increase of 19.46pc.
