December 06, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan's short-term inflation dropped 0.34% compared to last week as of December 05, 2024, while it rose 3.57% 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, prices of 18 (35.29%) items increased, 10 (19.61%) items decreased and 23 (45.10%) items remained stable.
On a weekly basis, a major decrease was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (25.15%), Chicken (9.90%), Pulse Mash (1.67%), Pulse Gram (0.73%), and Wheat Flour (0.71%).
On the other hand, a major increase was observed in the prices of Garlic (1.83%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5Kg (1.72%), Potatoes (1.69%), Petrol (1.48%), and Sugar (1.33%).
The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all income groups, ranging between -0.28% and -0.45%.
The lowest income group experienced a weekly drop of 0.44%, while the highest income group experienced a 0.28% fall.
On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 3.46% and 3.78%.
Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group increased by 3.46% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 3.57%.
The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4,552 per 50 kg bag, unchanged from last week’s price, while 6.67% higher when compared to last year.
Meanwhile, the average Cement price fell to Rs1,420 per 50 kg bag, which is 0.38% lower than the previous week, while 14.12% higher than prices last year.
