SPI-based weekly inflation rises slightly

ISLAMABAD: Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based weekly inflation showed an upward trend as it increased by 0.12 percent on the week ended on January 08, primarily because of an increase in the prices of wheat flour and chicken.

According to the statistics released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), a major increase is observed in the prices of wheat flour, 5.07percent, chicken, 2.86percent, garlic, 2.44percent, chilli powder, 1.01percent, LPG, 0.88percent, tea prepared, 0.73percent, sugar, 0.58percent, bread, 0.51percent, rice basmati broken, 0.41percent, and firewood, 0.25percent.

On the other hand, a decrease is observed in the prices of potatoes, 3.73percent, onions, 2.20percent, pulse gram, 1.51percent, eggs, 1.44percent, pulse mash, 0.65percent, pulse masoor, 0.38percent, bananas, 0.21percent, and tomatoes, 0.05percent.

During the week, of 51 items, prices of 21 items (41.18percent) increased, eight items (15.68percent) decreased and the prices of 22 items (22 43.14percent) remained stable.The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 3.20percent. A major increase is observed in the prices wheat flour, 31.12percent, gas charges for Q1, 29.85percent, beef, 13.15 percent, chilli powder, 11.43percent, sugar, 11.18percent, bananas and firewood, 10.57percent each, gur, 10.50 percent, powdered milk, 9.51 percent, shirting, 8.73 percent, lawn printed, 8.29percent and eggs, 8.03 percent. While a decrease is observed in the prices of tomatoes,57.04percent, potatoes, 48.71percent, onions, 41.33percent, garlic, 36.07 percent, pulse gram, 30.97percent, tea Lipton, 17.79 percent, pulse mash, 14.34 percent, pulse masoor, 8.92percent, LPG, 1.22 percent, and diesel, 0.30percent.

The SPI for consumption groups up to Rs17,732 with an increase of 0.12 percent recorded at 324.37 points compared to 323.98 points in the previous week. The SPI for consumption group of Rs17,732 to 22,888 up by 0.13 percent was recorded at 324.96 points against previous week’s calculation of 324.53 points. Whereas the SPI for the income group Rs22,889-29,517 with an increase of 0.13 percent was recorded at 346.88 points against previous week’s recording of 346.44 points. The SPI for the income group Rs29,518-44,175 with an increase of 0.13 percent was recorded at 333.88 points against previous week’s reading of 333.45 points and SPI for the monthly income group above Rs44,175 up

by 0.11 percent was recorded at 327.74 points against 332.39 points of the previous week calculation.

The combined increase for all expenditure groups recorded at 334.35 points compared to 333.96 points of previous week registering an increase of 0.12 percent.