Pakistan’s inflation rate hits record high of 42.68%

ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), which tracks the price movement of essential commodities in 17 cities of Pakistan, increased by 1.16% in the week ended on December 7, 2023, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The SPI, which is computed on a weekly basis, showed that the prices of 15 items out of 51 increased, while 14 items decreased and 22 items remained stable.

The major contributors to the increase in SPI were onions, which rose by 8.42%, eggs, which increased by 2.52%, and electricity charges for Q1, which went up by 2.03%.

Other items that witnessed a price hike were pulse moong, sugar, bananas, firewood, LPG, tea prepared, pulse masoor, mustard oil and curd.

On the other hand, the prices of tomatoes, potatoes, chicken, tea lipton, diesel, rice basmati broken, vegetable ghee, cooking oil, wheat flour, pulse gram and vegetable ghee 1 kg declined during the week.

Weekly inflation in Pakistan exceeds 41% on YoY basis

The year-on-year comparison of SPI revealed that the prices of essential commodities increased by 42.68% in the last 12 months.

The highest increase was observed in gas charges for Q1, which soared by 1108.59%, followed by cigarettes, which jumped by 94.20%, and wheat flour, which surged by 85.05%.

Other items that recorded a significant increase in prices were chilies powder, garlic, rice basmati broken, rice IRRI 6/9, gents sponge chappal, gents sandal, gur, tea lipton and pulse mash.

However, some items showed a decrease in prices on a year-on-year basis, such as onions, which dropped by 22.59%, tomatoes, which fell by 6.97%, mustard oil, which declined by 4.04%, vegetable ghee 1 kg, which reduced by 3.00%, vegetable ghee 2.5 kg, which slipped by 1.30%, and bananas, which edged down by 0.01%.