Weekly inflation surges to 41.54%

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The weekly inflation, measured by Sensitive price Indicator (SPI), witnessed an increase of 2.78 per cent to jump to 41.54pc on a year-on-year basis for the week ended on Feb 23, rising from 38.42pc in the previous week.

The week-on-week inflation eased to 2.78pc from 2.89pc a week ago. Of the 51 items tracked, the prices of 33 items increased, six items decreased, whereas those of 12 items remained stable.

During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most compared to the same week a year ago were onions 372pc, cigarettes 164.7pc, gas 108.38pc, chicken 85.7pc, diesel 81.36pc, eggs 75.81pc, Irri 6/9 rice 75.41pc, broken basmati rice 74.16pc, bananas 72.22pc, washed moong pulse 70.39pc, and petrol 69.87pc.

However, it also noted a decrease in the prices of tomatoes (67.93 percent), chili powder (7.42 percent) and electricity charges for Q1 (6.64 percent).

The upward trend of inflation continues as Islamabad was taking measures to get the $1.1 billion IMF tranche under the Extended Fund Facility.

The federal government had also approved ‘mini-budget’, imposing additional Rs170 billion taxes to boost revenue generation in line with the preconditions of the IMF.
Sources have revealed that the staff-level agreement between the fund and the government is expected next week.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that inflation would further trigger after the approval of the IMF programme.(INP)