Weekly SPI stands at 0.07%

December 13, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan's short-term inflation increased by 0.07% compared to the previous week as of December 12, 2024, while it rose by 3.71% over the same period last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

PBS calculates short-term inflation using the sensitive price indicator (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.

Prices of key items rose, including chicken (3.80%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (2.27%), bananas (1.99%), potatoes (1.93%), mustard oil (1.07%), cooking oil 5 litre (0.98%), and others like washing soap, LPG, and cigarettes, with smaller increases.

On the other hand, the major decrease is observed in the prices of Onions (3.58%), Tomatoes (3.10%), Eggs (2.14%), Garlic (1.58%), Pulse Gram (1.19%), Rice IRRI-6/9 (0.75%), Pulse Mash (0.59%), Wheat Flour (0.58%) and Firewood (0.16%).

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 18 (35.29%) items increased, 11 (21.57%) items decreased and 22 (43.14%) items remained stable.

Year-on-year inflation rose by 3.71%, with major increases in ladies' sandals (75.09%), pulse gram (59.55%), moong (36.44%), potatoes (36.16%), powdered milk (25.74%), and beef (23.82%).

Conversely, significant decreases were seen in wheat flour (-35.88%), chilies powder (-20.00%), diesel (-10.77%), petrol (-10.33%), and onions (-8.92%).

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all income groups, ranging between 0.03% and 0.08%.

The lowest income group experienced a weekly increase of 0.03%, while the inflation for the highest income group inched up by 0.08%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group increased by 3.68% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 3.69%.

The average price of Sona urea stood at Rs4,542 per 50 kg bag, down 0.23% from last week’s price, while 2.33% higher when compared to last year.

Meanwhile, the average Cement price fell to Rs1,416 per 50 kg bag, which is 0.31% lower than the previous week, while 14% higher than prices last year.

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