Weekly inflation swells by 1.42%

May 20, 2022 (MLN): The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined consumption group recorded an increase of 1.42% for the week ended on May 19, 2022, mainly due to a sharp increase observed in the prices of essential food items, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

The combined index clocked in at 175.08 compared to 172.63 on May 12, 2022, while on yearly basis, the SPI observed a surge of 16.54% when the index was recorded at 150.23 a year ago, on May 20, 2021.

Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 33 items registered an increase in the week including Chicken (9.03%), Pulse Masoor (6.30%), Eggs (4.24%), Wheat Flour (3.99%), Pulse Gram (3.86%), Rice Basmati Broken (3.11%), Mustard Oil (2.99%), Rice Irri-6/9 (2.67%), Pulse Mash (1.86%), Curd (1.68%), Onions (1.38%) and Milk fresh (1.18%), non-food items Energy Saver (4.37%) and Long Cloth 57" (1.97%) with joint impact of (1.14%) into the overall SPI for combined group of (1.42%).

Meanwhile, 4 commodities witnessed a decline in prices on a WoW basis including Bananas (2.97%), Tomatoes (0.20%), Potatoes (0.11%) and Gur (0.07).

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI increased across all quantiles, ranging between 1.3% and 1.58%.

The lowest income group saw a weekly increase of 1.46% while the highest income group recorded a jump of 1.3%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI across different income segments showed that weekly inflation increased across all quantiles ranging between 14.84% and 17.4%.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 14.84% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 17.4%.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs2,157 per 50 kg bag which is around 0.26% higher than last week’s price and 24.25% higher when compared to same week last year.

Going by the PBS report, the average cement price stands at Rs871 per 50 kg bag, up by 0.07% on weekly basis, while increasing by 41.38% YoY.

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