Weekly inflation declines by 0.68%

April 15, 2022 (MLN): The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined consumption group recorded a decline of 0.68% for the week ended on April 14, 2022, mainly due to a decrease observed in the prices of essential food items, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

The combined index clocked in at 173.27 compared to 174.45 on April 07, 2022.

On the contrary, the year-on-year trend observed a surge of 16.44% when the index was recorded at 148.8 a year ago, on April 15, 2021.

Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 10 items registered a decrease in the week including tomatoes (34.14%), Onions (8.46%), Potatoes (3.73%), Garlic (3.68%), Bananas (2.61%), Mustard Oil (0.34%), Wheat Flour (0.33%) and sugar (0.25%), non-food items, LPG (1.25%) and Firewood (0.80%).

Meanwhile, 17 commodities witnessed an increase in prices on a WoW basis that include Cigarettes (5.46%), Eggs (2.12%) and Pulse Masoor (1.15%). The prices of 24 items remained stable.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI declined across all quantiles, ranging between 0.56% and 1.01%.

The lowest income group saw a weekly decrease of 1.01% while the highest income group recorded a reduction of 0.56%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 17.15% and 16.25%.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 14.33% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 17.15%.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs2,092 per 50 kg bag which is around 1.25% higher than last week’s price and 20.07% higher when compared to last year.

Going by the PBS report, the average cement price inched up by 0.3% WoW to Rs873 per 50 kg bag, while increasing by 42.1% YoY.

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