Weekly inflation drops in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) witnessed a decrease of 0.7 per cent for the combined consumption group in the week July 20, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has reported.

The SPI for the week under review in the consumption group was recorded at 258.45 points as compared to 258.63 points during the past week, PBS data shows.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 29.16 per cent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 is covering 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs17,732, increased by 0.51 per cent and went up to 267.24 points from last week’s 265.88 points.

The SPI for consumption groups from Rs17,732 to 22,888, Rs22,889 to 29,517 and Rs29,518 to 44,175, however, increased by 0.35 per cent, 0.20 per cent and 0.03 per cent respectively. It declined by 0.28 percent for the consumption group above Rs 44,175.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 30 (58.82%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 12 (23.53%) items remained stable.

The items that saw a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week included onions, chicken, bananas, wheat flour, vegetable ghee, vegetable ghee, cooking oil, petrol and diesel.

Meanwhile, items that saw an increase in prices on a week-on-week basis, included tomatoes, chillies powder, sugar, eggs, gur, shirting and garlic.

Similarly, on a year-to-year basis, commodities that witnessed a decrease in price included onions, electricity for one quarter, pulse masoor, LPG and vegetable ghee.

Commodities that saw an increase in their average prices year-to-year included wheat flour, cigarettes, gas charges for one quarter, tea, rice, sugar, potatoes, tomatoes, gur, salt powdered and bread.