The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), saw a slight decrease of 0.08% for the combined consumption groups during the week ending on October 10, 2024, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
According to PBS data, the SPI for the reviewed week was recorded at 318.91 points, down from 319.17 points in the previous week. However, compared to the same week last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group increased by 12.74%.
The SPI, with the base year 2015-16 = 100, covers 17 urban centres and tracks prices of 51 essential items across all expenditure groups.
For the lowest consumption group, with incomes up to Rs 17,732, inflation dropped by 0.09%, with the SPI falling to 312.91 points from 313.20 points in the previous week. Similar decreases were observed in the following income groups: Rs 17,732 to Rs 22,888 (-0.10%), Rs 22,889 to Rs 29,517 (-0.07%), Rs 29,518 to Rs 44,175 (-0.08%), and above Rs 44,175 (-0.08%).
During the week, prices of 15 items (29.42%) increased, 8 items (15.68%) decreased, and 28 items (54.90%) remained stable.
The major decreases in week-on-week prices were seen in tomatoes (-19.79%), bananas (-2.91%), sugar (-1.47%), pulse mash (-1.16%), chicken (-0.84%), pulse moong (-0.40%), eggs (-0.27%), and pulse masoor (-0.20%).
Conversely, notable increases were observed in onions (+4.14%), wheat flour (+1.85%), pulse gram (+0.63%), mustard oil (+0.35%), potatoes (+0.30%), LPG (+0.25%), gur and cooking oil 5 litre (+0.23% each), vegetable ghee 1 kg (+0.14%), firewood (+0.12%), and cigarettes (+0.06%).
On a year-on-year basis, some commodities saw significant price reductions, including wheat flour (-34.36%), petrol (-23.51%), diesel (-22.48%), electricity charges for Q1 (-20.32%), chili powder (-20.00%), basmati rice (-10.10%), sugar (-9.91%), cooking oil 5 litre (-9.76%), pulse masoor (-6.91%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (-5.56%), bread (-5.03%), and LPG (-4.00%).
However, some commodities recorded year-on-year price increases, such as gas charges for Q1 (+570.00%), pulse gram (+71.08%), onions (+49.00%), chicken (+25.97%), powdered milk (+25.36%), beef (+24.62%), shirting (+19.60%), pulse moong (+18.73%), mutton (+15.07%), cooked daal (+14.52%), georgette (+13.81%), and ladies sandals (+12.52%).
