Short-term inflation, as measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), increased by 0.30% week-on-week for the week ended August 8, 2024, and rose to 17.96% year-on-year compared to the corresponding week last year.
According to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the weekly SPI is computed with base 2015-16=100 covering 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups/quintiles.
A major increase was observed in the prices of Onions (32.23%), Eggs (4.28%), Garlic (3.23%), LPG (1.73%), Georgette (1.32%), Pulse Mash (0.97%), Pulse Gram (0.95%), Pulse Moong (0.83%), Potatoes (0.70%), Firewood (0.56%), Chicken (0.52%) and Cigarettes (0.09%).
A decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (19.12%), Bananas (1.55%), Wheat Flour (1.39%), Chilies Powder (1.31%), Pulse Masoor (0.68%), Sugar (0.44%) and Bread (0.02%).
PBS data shows out of 51 items, prices of 23 (45.10%) items increased, 7 (13.72%) items decreased and 21 (41.18%) items remained stable during the week under review.
The year on year trend depicts an increase of 17.96% as Gas Charges for Q1 (570.00%), Onions (142.48%), Pulse Gram (42.23%), Pulse Moong (29.62%), Garlic (28.93%), Powered Milk (27.68%), Gents Sandal (25.01%), Shirting (24.96%), Beef (23.11%), Salt Powder (21.05%), Pulse Mash (18.68%), Cooked Daal (17.78%), Energy Saver (17.21%) and Long Cloth (16.64%).
While a major decrease was observed in the prices of Wheat Flour (33.37%), Tomatoes (18.09%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (16.91%), Cooking Oil 5 Litre (12.61%), Chilies Powder (11.55%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (9.79%), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (7.44%), Mustard Oil (5.91%), Rice Basmati Broken (5.71%), Petrol (1.20%), Diesel (0.16%) and Washing Soap (0.12%).
