SPI falls for third straight week

January 28, 2022 (MLN): The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined group witnessed a drop for the third consecutive week, going down by 0.11% WoW for the week ended January 27, 2022, weekly data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday.

As per the PBS inflation report, the decline was mainly on account of a drop in the price of essential food items and LPG.

The combined index clocked in at 167.11 compared to 167.29 on January 20, 2022.

However, the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 18.62% when the index was recorded at 140.88 a year ago, on January 28, 2021.

Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 8 items decreased weekly including chili powder that witnessed a drop of 9.05%, potatoes by 4.03%, onions by 2.86%, eggs by 2.19%, chicken by 1.71% and non-food items such as LPG declined by 2.04% that was observed with the joint impact of -0.47% into the overall SPI for the combined group.

Meanwhile, the average price of 17 items registered an increase in the week that include tomatoes, garlic, tea prepared, mustard oil, pulse gram and cooking oil.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all quantiles ranging between 0.05% and 0.12%.

The lowest income group saw a weekly decrease of 0.07% while the highest income group recorded a fall of 0.12%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 16.62% and 20.24%.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 20.24% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 18.85%.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs2,016 per 50 kg bag which is 0.81% higher than last week’s price and 16.36% higher when compared to last year.

Going by the PBS report, the average cement price was recorded at Rs737 per 50 kg bag, showing a marginal drop of 0.16% WoW while it increased by 23.45% YoY.

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