Prices of tomatoes, sugar, eggs other food items go down

ISLAMABAD (APP): The prices of various food items went down during the week ending on March 24 as compared to the previous week, according to the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Friday.
According to the data, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices on week-on-week (WoW) basis included garlic and tomatoes the prices of which declined by 4.94 percent and 4.17 percent respectively.
Other products that witnessed decrease in prices included eggs (4.13%), LPG (1.59%), gur (1.03%), sugar (0.92%), pulse Gram (0.36%) and pulse Masoor (0.22%).
On year-on-year (YoY) basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices during the week compared to corresponding week of last year included chillies powdered (37.44%), pulse Moong (29.02%), eggs (22.13%), sugar (12.27%), potatoes (5.46%) and electricity charges for Q1 (0.16%).
On the other hand, the items that witnessed increase in prices on WoW basis included, chicken (8.47%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (4.59%), bananas (4.04%), cooking oil (2.55%), potatoes (1.56%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.12%), curd (1.02%), non-food items, lawn (1.17%), shirting (1.03%) is observed with joint impact of (0.91%) into the overall spi for combined group of (1.10%).
On YoY basis, the commodities that witnessed increase in prices included LPG (71.57%), garlic (71.50%), mustard oil (57.99%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (55.63%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (55.39%), cooking oil 5 litre (53.53%), tomatoes (52.11%), washing soap (39.17%), pulse masoor (36.13%), petrol (33.42%), beef (24.55%) and diesel (23.75%)
The overall SPI based weekly inflation for the week ended on March 25 witnessed an increase of 1.10 per cent for the combined income group as compared to the previous week.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 25 (49.03%) items increased, 08 (15.69%) items decreased and 18 (35.29%) items remained stable.
The SPI for the combined consumption group was recorded an increase of 1.10 percent WoW basis.
The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 170.92 points against 169.06 points registered in the previous week.
As compared to the corresponding week of last year the SPI for combined consumption group went up by 15.67 percent.
The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed 1.24 percent increase and went up from 177.17 points in last week to 179.37 points during the week under review.
Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs44,175 increased by 1.31 percent, 1.25 percent, 1.23 and 0.95 percent respectively.