Weekly SPI inches up by 0.51%

February 25, 2022 (MLN): The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on February 24, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a slight increase of 0.51 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

As per the PBS inflation report, this increase was mainly on account of an upsurge in the price of essential food items.

The combined index clocked in at 170.47 compared to 169.61 on February 17, 2022.

Similarly, the year-on-year trend also observed a surge of 15.9% when the index was recorded at 147.09 a year ago, on February 25, 2021.

Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 20 items registered an increase in the week that include chicken (14.46%), bananas (3.86%), tomatoes (3.63%), mustard oil (2.96%) and tea prepared (1.72%).

Meanwhile, 11 commodities witnessed a decrease in prices on a WoW basis, garlic (5.28%), onions (2.63%), eggs (2.60%), potatoes (2.00%), pulse moong (0.90%), LPG (0.76%), gur (0.75%), pulse gram (0.27%), pulse masoor (0.11%), pulse mash & firewood (0.02%) each and 20 items remained stable.

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 0.34% and 0.54%.

The lowest income group saw a weekly rise of 0.34% while the highest income group recorded a jump of 0.53%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 12.33% and 17.34%.

Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 12.33% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 17.34%.

The average price of sona urea stood at Rs1,927 per 50 kg bag which is 3.6% lower than last week’s price and 10.65% higher when compared to last year.

Going by the PBS report, the average cement price was recorded at Rs748 per 50 kg bag, depicting an increase of 1.27% WoW, while increasing by 23.08% YoY.

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