Weekly inflation eases by 1.70 per cent

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed decrease of 1.70 percent for the combined consumption group during the week ended on October 19, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 278.04 points as compared to 282.86 points during the past week, according to the PBS data.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 35.45 percent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs 17,732, decreased by 0.88 percent and went down to 284.47 points from last week’s 287.01 points.

The SPI for consumption groups from Rs 17,732-22,888; Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 declined by 1.13 percent, 1.25 percent, 1.49 percent and 2.02 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 14 (27.45%) items increased, 24 (47.06%) items decreased and 13 (25.49%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) included onions (8.45%), chicken (5.46%), pulse masoor (3.38%), sugar (3.07%), garlic (2.24%), rice basmati broken (2.17%), gur (2.17%), bananas (1.56 %), petrol (12.31%), diesel (4.68%) and LPG (1.17%).

The items that recorded an increase in their average prices on a week-on-week (wow) basis, included eggs (3.44%), salt powdered (2.63%), shirting (2.18%), mutton (1.01%), beef (0.84%), cooked beef (0.72%), georgette (0.52%), washing soap (0.48%), tea prepared (0.34%), cooked daal (0.34%), potatoes (0.25%) and firewood whole (0.22%).

On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, the commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices included electricity charges for q1 (136.89%), gas charges for q1 (108.38%), cigarettes (94.46%), chilies powder (84.11%), rice basmati broken (81.74%), wheat flour (80.73%), rice irri-6/9 (71.43%), sugar (66.29%), gur (61.50%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), salt powdered (57.40%) and tea lipton (56.27%) while decrease is observed in the prices of tomatoes (45.75%), onions (23.76%), pulse gram (5.63%), mustard oil (2.12%) and vegetable ghee (0.62%). (APP)