Weekly inflation edges lower

November 29, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan's short-term inflation inched lower by 0.03% compared to last week as of November 28, 2024, while it rose 5.13% over the prior year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

PBS calculates short-term inflation using the sensitive price indicator (SPI) on a weekly basis to assess the price movement of essential commodities at shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country.

SPI comprises of 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the week, out of these items, prices of 12 (23.53%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 30 (58.82%) items remained stable.

On a weekly basis, a major decrease is observed in the prices of Chicken (3.78%), Tomatoes (2.23%), Pulse Gram (1.60%), Pulse Masoor (1.38%) and Rice Basmati Broken (1.15%).

On the other hand, a major increase is observed in the prices of Potatoes (3.34%), Garlic (1.69%), Bananas (1.13%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (0.99%) and Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (0.93%).

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI ranged between -0.06% and +0.06%.

The lowest income group experienced a weekly rise of 0.06%, while the highest income group experienced a drop of similar proportion.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 3.74% and 5.58%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group increased by 3.74% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 5.58%.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4,552 per 50 kg bag, 0.22% lower than last week’s price, and 9.31% higher when compared to last year.

Meanwhile, the average Cement price rose to Rs1,426 per 50 kg bag, which is 0.1% lower than the previous week while 14.95% higher than prices last year.

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