Weekly SPI decreases by 0.35%

March 21, 2025 (MLN): Pakistan's short-term inflation decreased by 0.35% compared to the previous week, while it fell by 1.2% 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 11 (21.57%) items increased, 18 (35.29%) items decreased and 22 (43.14%) items remained stable.

A major increase is observed in the prices of Lawn Printed (2.90%), LPG (1.53%), Bananas (1.45%), Long Cloth (1.23%), Bread (0.55%), Cigarettes (0.27%), Beef (0.25%), Curd (0.24%) and Salt Powder (0.03%).

On the other hand, a major decrease is observed in the prices of Tomatoes (7.08%), Onions (6.07%), Garlic (5.59%), Eggs (4.64%), Potatoes (2.50%), Pulse Gram (1.60%), Tea Lipton (1.30%), Sugar (0.87%) and Firewood (0.60%).

The year on year trend depicts decrease of 1.20%, Onions (67.67%), Wheat Flour (35.58%), Tomatoes (29.45%), Chilies Powder (20.00%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (18.92%), Tea Lipton (16.98%), Pulse Mash (13.96%), Pulse Masoor (11.69%), Rice Basmati Broken (9.81%), Diesel (9.37%), Petrol (8.55%) and LPG (5.30%).

While major increase is observed in the prices of Ladies Sandal (75.09%), Pulse Moong (26.96%), Powdered Milk (25.75%), Beef (21.01%), Sugar (18.65%), Chicken (18.23%), Pulse Gram (17.83%), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (16.13%), Bananas (15.73%), Lawn Printed (12.28%), Shirting (12.20%) and Georgette (11.20%)

The lowest income group experienced a weekly decrease of 0.39%, while the inflation for the highest income group down by 0.36%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI remained across all quantiles ranging between 2.00% and 0.49%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group decreased by 1.84% while the highest income group decreased by 0.49%.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4,513 per 50 kg bag, down by 0.30% from last week’s price, and a 6.54% decrease from last year.

Meanwhile, the average Cement price rose to Rs1,380 per 50 kg bag, which is 2.83% higher than the previous week, and 13.02% 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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