Weekly SPI goes up slightly by 0.22%

February 18, 2022: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on February 17, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a slight increase of 0.22 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 169.61 points against 169.23 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data.

The commodities that contributed in decline in weekly inflation included chillies powdered (5.41%), eggs (5.31%), electricity for q1 (5.20%), onions (1.39%), potatoes (0.89%), gur (0.82%), sugar (0.59%), wheat flour (0.27%), lpg (0.17%), pulse moong (0.11%), and pulse mash (0.08%).

On a Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed a decrease in prices included chillies powdered (36.30%), pulse moong (28.43%), chicken (9.77%), sugar (5.72%), onions (3.84%) and potatoes (0.38%).

Meanwhile, the commodities that witnessed an increase in prices on a WoW basis, included garlic (10.53%), tomatoes (4.35%), bananas (4.28%), chicken (2.89%), cooked daal (1.94%) and vegetable ghee 2.5kg (1.08%) and non-food items petrol (8.12%), diesel (6.52%), matchbox (2.17%) and long cloth (1.50%).

The items that witnessed an increase in prices on YoY basis included tomatoes (322.87%), electricity for q1 (65.79%), garlic (60.98%), LPG (55.11%), mustard oil (48.44%), petrol (42.28%), cooking oil 5 litre (41.81%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (39.13%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (38.97%), washing soap (38.40%), pulse masoor (37.19%) and diesel (32.26%).

Meanwhile, as compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 18.09 percent.

The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed a 0.16 percent decrease and down up to 177.28 this week from 177.57 points last week whereas the SPI for the consumption group from Rs17,732-22,888 decreased by 0.26 percent.

The SPI for consumption groups from Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 increased by 0.14 percent, 0.45 percent and 0.29 respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 28 (54.90%) items increased, 11 (21.57%) items decreased and 12 (23.53%) items remained stable.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs1,999 per 50 kg bag which is 1.47% higher than last week’s price and 14.8% higher when compared to last year.

Going by the report, the average cement price was recorded at Rs716 per 50 kg bag, 2.31% lower than the previous week while 17.82% higher than prices of last year.

APP