Fourth successive decline: weekly SPI down to 3-year low

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended September 05, 2024 decreased by 0.15%, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The SPI released on Friday noted that a major decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (14.54%), chicken (1.55%), wheat flour (1.31%), chilies powder (1.30%), diesel (1.23%), petrol (0.68%), pulse Masoor (0.59%), sugar (0.54%), pulse mash (0.49%) and cooking oil 5 litre (0.41%).

On the other hand, increase was observed in in the prices of onions (3.83%), pulse gram (1.65%), garlic (1.38%), LPG (0.90%), cooked daal and cooked beef (0.70%) each, eggs (0.54%), potatoes (0.50%), rice basmati broken (0.34%) and georgette (0.14%).

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 19 (37.25%) items increased, 13 (25.50%) items decreased and 19 (37.25%) items remained stable.

Third successive decline: weekly SPI down 0.62%

On YoY basis, SPI for the week ended 05-Sep-2024 was recorded at 14.07%, marking the lowest level in 3 years since 14-Oct-2021, when it was 12.66% YoY, said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited.

Pakistan has now witnessed four consecutive weeks of falling weekly inflation.

To gauge inflation on weekly/short term basis, the SPI is computed 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.

Pakistan’s headline inflation clocked in at 9.6% on a year-on-year basis in August 2024, lower than the reading in July 2024 when it stood at 11.1%. The CPI-based inflation reading was back into single digits after a span of three years, showed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.

The decline in inflation has strengthened case for a yet another policy rate cut by the central bank in the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) scheduled on Thursday.