Pakistan’s short-term inflation increased by 0.62% over the previous week, while rising 3.57% compared to the same period last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.
During the week, prices of 18 out of 51 items surveyed increased, six decreased, and 27 remained stable. Major weekly increases were recorded for tomatoes (14.98%), wheat flour (12.11%), chicken (3.36%), potatoes (1.52%), mustard oil (1.37%), eggs (1.03%), LPG (0.82%), cooked beef (0.81%), garlic (0.78%), lawn printed (0.23%), firewood (0.17%), and long cloth (0.11%). Decreases were seen in pulse mash (0.43%), pulse masoor and pulse gram (0.28% each), bananas (0.12%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.10%), and onions (0.01%).
Year-on-year, the SPI showed a 3.57% increase. Largest rises were in ladies’ sandals (55.62%), gas charges for Q1 (29.85%), sugar (26.91%), beef (12.99%), gur (12.18%), bananas (11.78%), pulse moong (11.74%), firewood (11.47%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (11.36%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (10.89%), cooked beef (8.93%), and lawn printed (7.64%). Declines were observed in onions (49.31%), garlic (25.98%), pulse mash (23.39%), potatoes (19.96%), pulse gram (18.54%), electricity charges for Q1 (18.12%), tea Lipton (17.93%), pulse masoor (7.05%), rice IRRI-6/9 (5.47%), and LPG (3.70%).
Inflation by income segment showed the lowest income group experienced a weekly rise of 0.84%, while the highest income group increased 0.51%. On a yearly basis, SPI for the lowest income group rose 3.37% and 2.61% for the highest income group, with overall SPI ranging between 2.61% and 4.18% across all quantiles.
Commodity prices showed minor adjustments, with Sona urea at Rs4,386 per 50 kg bag, down 0.39% from last week and 6.54% lower than last year, and cement at Rs1,409 per 50 kg bag, 0.17% lower than the previous week and 4.72% lower than last year.
PBS calculates short-term inflation using the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) on a weekly basis, covering 51 essential items from 50 markets across 17 cities, providing a short-interval assessment of price movements in Pakistan.