SPI goes up slightly by 0.04%

March 04, 2022 (MLN): The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on March 03, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a slight increase of 0.04 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

As per the PBS inflation report, this marginal increase was mainly on account of an upsurge in the price of LPG and essential food items.

The combined index clocked in at 170.53 compared to 170.47 on February 24, 2022.

Similarly, the year-on-year trend also observed a surge of 15.23% when the index was recorded at 147.99 a year ago, on March 04, 2021.

Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 19 items registered an increase in the week that include chicken (10.47%), bananas (7.06%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (4.08%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (3.69%), mustard oil (2.98%), cooking oil 5 liter (2.19%), powdered milk (1.11%) and non-food items, LPG (9.45%) and georgette (1.06%).

Meanwhile, 13 commodities witnessed a decrease in prices on a WoW basis, including tomatoes (27.06%), eggs (7.18%), diesel (6.43%), petrol (6.23%), garlic (3.27%), pulse moong (0.96%), pulse masoor (0.69%), onions (0.40%), wheat flour (0.35%), sugar (0.27%), potatoes (0.20%), pulse mash (0.16%) and gur (0.10%) and 19 items remained stable.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI increased across all quantiles except the highest income quintile, ranging between -0.03% and 0.13%.

The lowest income group saw a weekly rise of 0.12% while the highest income group recorded a decline of 0.03%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 11.86% and 16.61%.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 11.86% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 16.61%.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs1,908 per 50 kg bag which is around 1% lower than last week’s price and 9.26% higher when compared to last year.

Going by the PBS report, the average cement price was recorded at Rs749 per 50 kg bag, depicting an increase of 0.16% WoW, while increasing by 23.07% YoY.

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