Weekly inflation rises, but overall prices still lower than last year’s levels

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s short-term inflation inched up by 0.15 per cent during the week ending April 30, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). However, prices were 2.41 per cent lower compared to the same week last year.

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which tracks the cost of 51 essential items, showed that prices of 12 items rose, 11 fell, while the remaining 28 remained unchanged.

Among the weekly gainers, egg prices increased by 5.55 per cent, followed by chicken (1.84 per cent), liquefied petroleum gas (1.03 per cent), gur (0.59 per cent), bread (0.55 per cent), bananas (0.54 per cent), pulse moong (0.52 per cent), sugar (0.26 per cent), broken basmati rice (0.18 per cent), and long cloth (0.04 per cent).

In contrast, onions recorded the steepest drop at 5.59 per cent, followed by tomatoes (4.56 per cent), garlic (1.78 per cent), pulse mash (1.57 per cent), wheat flour (1.43 per cent), mustard oil (0.77 per cent), IRRI rice (0.59 per cent), and vegetable ghee (0.31 per cent).

Compared to April last year, notable year-on-year price declines were seen in onions (down 69.09 per cent), garlic (33.73 per cent), electricity charges for Q1 (29.40 per cent), tomatoes (27.48 per cent), wheat flour (26.64 per cent), potatoes (21.63 per cent), branded tea (16.98 per cent), pulse mash (16.69 per cent), red chilli powder (13.45 per cent), petrol (11.62 per cent), and diesel (8.19 per cent).

However, several items saw significant annual increases. These include ladies’ sandals (55.62 per cent), pulse moong (28.67 per cent), powdered milk (22.26 per cent), pulse gram (22.09 per cent), beef (18.22 per cent), bananas (18.18 per cent), sugar (16.54 per cent), vegetable ghee (up to 14.93 per cent), firewood (10.35 per cent), and printed lawn and georgette fabrics (over 9 per cent).

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