Weekly SPI increases by 0.8%

December 27, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan's short-term inflation increased by 0.8% compared to the previous week, while it rose by 5.08% 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 17 (33.33%) items increased, 10 (19.61%) items decreased and 24 (47.06%) items remained stable.

Prices of key items rose, including Chicken (22.47%), Tomatoes (20.75%), Sugar (2.19%), Vegetable Ghee 1Kg (1.17%), Firewood (0.95%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5Kg (0.91%), Cooking Oil 5 Litre (0.74%), Cooked Beef & Mustard Oil (0.69%) each, LPG (0.18%) and Washing Soap (0.09%).

On the other hand, a major decrease is observed in the prices of Onions (8.13%), Potatoes (2.38%), Pulse Mash (1.28%), Pulse Gram (0.78%), Bananas (0.68%), Rice IRRI-6/9 (0.50%), Eggs (0.30%) and Rice Basmati Broken (0.15%).

The year on year trend depicts increase of 5.08%, Tomatoes (138.53%), Ladies Sandal (75.09%), Potatoes (61.17%), Pulse Gram (51.17%), Pulse Moong (31.51%), Powdered Milk (25.62%), Beef (24.28%), Garlic (17.27%), Gas Charges for Q1 (15.52%), Cooked Daal (15.10%), Shirting (14.36%) and Firewood (13.14%).

Conversely, significant decreases were seen in the prices of Wheat Flour (36.20%), Onions (31.21%), Chilies Powder (20.00%), Eggs (12.89%), Pulse Masoor (11.18%), Rice Basmati Broken (7.98%), Diesel (7.49%), Electricity Charges for Q1 (6.96%), Pulse Mash (6.27%), Bread (6.01%) and Petrol (5.64%).

The lowest income group experienced a weekly increase of 0.69%, while the inflation for the highest income group inched up by 0.81%.

On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 4.98% and 5.22%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group increased by 5.10% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 5.09%.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4555 per 50 kg bag, down by 0.05% from last week’s price, and 1.34% from last year.

Meanwhile, the average Cement price fell to Rs 1,408 per 50 kg bag, which is -0.3% lower than the previous week, while 14.32% 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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