Weekly inflation falls 0.39%

January 17, 2025 (MLN): Pakistan's short-term inflation decreased by 0.39% compared to the previous week, while it rose by 1.16% compared to the same period last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 21 (41.18%) items increased, 10 (19.61%) items decreased and 20 (39.21%) items remained stable.

A major increase is observed in the prices of Bananas (3.22%), Petrol (1.39%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (1.08%), Cooking Oil 5 Litre (1.01%), Firewood (1.00%), Diesel (0.99%), Pulse Moong (0.89%), Shirting & Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (0.74%) each, Sugar (0.72%), Cooked Daal (0.59%) and Rice Basmati Broken (0.58%).

On the other hand, a major decrease is observed in the prices of Tomatoes (18.31%), Potatoes (10.42%), Onions (10.01%), Eggs (8.64%), Chicken (2.17%), LPG (1.21%), Pulse Mash (0.81%), Mustard Oil (0.67%) and Garlic (0.54%).

The year-on-year (YoY) trend depicts increase of 1.16%, Ladies Sandal (75.09%), Potatoes (47.91%), Pulse Gram (39.77%), Pulse Moong (33.40%), Powdered Milk (25.77%), Beef (22.59%), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (16.34%), Gas Charges for Q1 (15.52%), Cooked Daal (15.43%), Garlic (15.27%), Shirting (14.83%) and Firewood (13.02%).

While a major YoY decrease is observed in the prices of Onions (47.22%), Wheat Flour (35.89%), Eggs (31.92%), Chilies Powder (20.00%), Tomatoes (19.83%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (18.11%), Pulse Masoor (11.10%), Pulse Mash (9.20%), Rice Basmati Broken (8.90%), Diesel (5.47%) and Petrol (1.18%).

The lowest income group experienced a weekly decrease of 0.62%, while the inflation for the highest income group down by 0.31%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI remained across all quantiles ranging between 0.16% and 1.66%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group increased by 0.20% while the highest income group increased by 1.66%.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4,530 per 50 kg bag, down by 0.14% from last week’s price, and a 1.79% decrease from last year.

Meanwhile, the average Cement price fell to Rs1,391 per 50 kg bag, which is 0.47% lower than the previous week, and 14.43% higher than prices last year.

PBS calculates short-term inflation using the 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 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.

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