Weekly inflation falls for second consecutive week

April 22, 2022 (MLN): The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined consumption group recorded a decline of 1.28% for the second consecutive week ended on April 21, 2022, mainly due to a decrease observed in the prices of essential food items, electricity and LPG prices, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

The combined index clocked in at 171.05 compared to 173.27 on April 14, 2022.

On the contrary, the year-on-year trend observed a surge of 15.42% when the index was recorded at 148.20 a year ago, on April 22, 2021.

Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 10 items registered a decrease in the week including Tomatoes (44.41%), Wheat Flour (8.16), Bananas (2.54%), Potatoes (2.24%), sugar (0.82), Garlic (0.77%), Pulse Moong (0.51%), Gur (0.34%) and non-food items, Electricity Charges for Q1 (5.44%) and LPG (0.22%) with joint impact of (-1.73%) into the overall SPI for combined group of (-1.28%).

Meanwhile, 19 commodities witnessed an increase in prices on a WoW basis that Onions (10.24%), Chicken (1.82%), Salt Powdered (1.70%) and Eggs (1.65%).. The prices of 22 items remained stable.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI declined across all quantiles, ranging between 0.98% and 1.86%.

The lowest income group saw a weekly decrease of 1.62% while the highest income group recorded a reduction of 0.98%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 12.94% and 16.48%.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 12.94% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 16.48%.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs2,114 per 50 kg bag which is around 1.04% higher than last week’s price and 21.23% higher when compared to last year.

Going by the PBS report, the average cement price remained stable at Rs873 per 50 kg bag on weekly basis, while increasing by 42.18% YoY.

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