Weekly SPI inflation stays unchanged

ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based inflation for the week ended January 19, remained unchanged, however, a major increase was observed in the prices of food items including rice basmati broken (3.54 per cent), onions (3.50 per cent), chicken (3.21 per cent), bananas (3.04 per cent), garlic (2.16 per cent), bread (1.45 per cent), cooked beef (1.26 per cent) and non-food items including LPG (2.34 per cent), the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 31.83 per cent mainly due to an increase in prices of onions (482.07 per cent), chicken (101.93 per cent), tea Lipton (65.41 per cent), eggs (64.23 per cent), diesel (57.34 per cent), rice basmati broken (56.09 per cent), moong (55.63 per cent), rice irri-6/9 (50.28 per cent), salt powdered (49.50per cent), bananas (47.73per cent), and wheat flour (46.38 per cent), while decrease was observed in the prices of chillies powdered (22.98 per cent), electricity for q1 (12.31 per cent), tomatoes (9.41 per cent) and sugar (0.25 per cent).

The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 220.54 points against 220.53 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest PBS data released on Friday.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 23 (45.10 per cent) items increased, 11 (21.57 per cent) items decreased and 17 (33.33 per cent) items remained stable.

The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs17,732, Rs17,732-22,888, Rs22,889-29,517 and Rs29,518-44,175 decreased by 0.25 per cent, 0.24 per cent, 0.18 per cent and 0.11 per cent respectively while t increased by 0.15 per cent for the above Rs44,175 consumption group.

The items, which recorded increase in their average prices during the week over previous include rice basmati broken (3.54 per cent), onions (3.50 per cent), chicken (3.21 per cent), bananas (3.04 per cent), rice irri-6/9 (2.43 per cent), LPG (2.34 per cent), garlic (2.16 per cent), Sufi washing soap (1.54 per cent), bread plain (1.45 per cent), cooked beef (1.26 per cent0, tea prepared (1.22 per cent), cooked daal (1.12 per cent), matchbox (0.85 per cent), moong (0.83 per cent), gur (0.71 per cent), energy saver (0.69 per cent), maash (0.66 per cent), firewood whole 40kg (0.56 per cent), mutton (0.47 per cent), milk fresh (0.37 per cent), powdered milk Nido(0.31 per cent), curd (0.29 per cent), and beef with bone (0.15 per cent).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023