ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended July 4, 2024, increased by 1.28 percent due to an increase in the prices of tomatoes (70.77 percent), wheat flour (10.57 percent), powdered milk (8.90 percent), diesel (3.58 percent), petrol (2.88 percent), pulse gram (2.87 percent), LPG (1.63 percent), and sugar (0.93 percent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 23.59 per cent mainly due to increase in the prices of gas charges for q1 (570 per cent), tomatoes (161.12 per cent), onions (79.04 per cent), chilies powder (55.00 per cent), garlic (36.13 per cent), pulse gram (32.45 per cent), salt powder (29.54 per cent), shirting (27.08 per cent), pulse moong (26.40 per cent), powered milk (25.78 per cent), gents sandal (25.01 per cent), pulse mash (22.21 per cent), beef (21.95 per cent), electricity charges for q1 (21.46 per cent) and LPG (21.15 per cent) while decrease is observed in the prices of wheat flour (28.25 per cent), chicken (28.23 per cent), cooking oil 5 litre (15.17 per cent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (12.54 per cent), vegetable ghee 1 kg (11.49 per cent), mustard oil (8.31 per cent), bananas (4.52 per cent), tea Lipton (2.52 per cent) and rice basmati broken (1.35 per cent).
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 29 (56.86 per cent) items increased, 05 (9.80 per cent) items decreased and 17 (33.34 per cent) items remained stable.
The SPI for the week under review was recorded at 318.61 points against 314.57 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data released on Friday.
The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs17,732, Rs17,732-Rs22,888, Rs22,889-Rs29,517, Rs29,518-Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 increased by 1.43 per cent, 1.44 per cent, 1.31 per cent, 1.31 per cent, and 1.23 per cent respectively.
The items, prices of which, increased during the period under review include tomatoes (70.77 per cent), wheat flour bag 20 kg (10.57 per cent),powdered milk Nido390 gm polybag each (8.90 per cent), hi-speed diesel (3.58 per cent), petrol super (2.88 per cent), pulse gram (2.87 per cent), moong (2.86 per cent), chicken (2.40 per cent), LPG (1.63 per cent), garlic (1.54 per cent), masoor (1.10 per cent), sugar (0.93 per cent), rice irri-6/9 (0.69 per cent), cigarettes Capstan 20’s packet (0.68 per cent), rice basmati broken (0.67 per cent), maash 0.65 per cent), curd (0.56 per cent), tea prepared (0.35 per cent), mustard oil (0.32 per cent), beef with bone (0.25 per cent), cooking oil Dalda or other similar brand (sn), 5 litre tin each (0.23 per cent), vegetable ghee Dalda/Habib or other superior quality 1 kg pouch each (0.22 per cent), Georgette (0.20 per cent), shirting (0.13 per cent), vegetable ghee Dalda/Habib 2.5 kg tin each (0.13 per cent), chilies powder (0.12 per cent), mutton (0.08 per cent), salt powdered (0.04 per cent) and cooked daal (0.01 per cent).
Items prices of which decreased during the period under review include onions (9.05 per cent), potatoes (1.04 per cent), eggs (0.79 per cent), bananas (0.60 per cent) and bread plain (0.02 per cent).