Prices of 16 essential commodities register increase

RECORDER REPORT

ISLMABAD: Weekly inflation, Sensitive Price Index (SPI) has been recorded 11.38 percent for the week ending June 21, 2012 over the same period last year with increase in prices of 16 essential commodities, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The data of weekly inflation released Saturday shows that the average price of 16 essential commodities registered an increase with highest increase of Rs 10 in powdered milk price. The prices of tomatoes per kg increased during the week to Rs.24.04 from  Rs.21.89, potatoes per kg to Rs.26.69 from Rs.25.64, bananas dozen to Rs.104 from Rs.100, chicken live (farm) per kg to Rs.159.34 from  Rs.155.91, garlic per kg to Rs.96.48 from 95.25, LPG (11-kg cylinder) each to Rs.1309.88 from Rs.1293.71, cooking oil (tin) 2.5 kg to Rs.543.82 from Rs.539.71, egg hen (farm) dozen to Rs.70.93 from Rs.70.45, onions per kg to Rs.21.78 from Rs.21.64, vegetable  ghee (tin) 2.5kg to Rs.535.59 from Rs. 532.65, gur per kg to Rs.72.63 from Rs.72.33, lawn per meter to Rs.158.76 from Rs.158.18, mustard oil per kg to Rs.185.03 from Rs.184.44, wheat 10 kg to Rs.270.35 from Rs.269.80 and  rice basmati broken per kg to Rs.65.40 from Rs.65.38.

The inflation for the low income group with earning up to Rs 8000 per month escalated by 0.18 percent, followed by 0.11 percent for those earning Rs 8001 to Rs12000 per month and 0.3 percent for those earning Rs12001 to Rs 18000.  The inflation eased for the high income group earning above Rs35, 000 per month with 0.56 percent decline as compared to the previous week and dearness decreased by 0.15 per cent for income group earning Rs18, 001 to Rs35, 000 per month.

The SPI inflation has been persistently increasing for the lowest income group for the last few weeks. The weekly inflation for all the income groups is computed on prices of 53 essential items collected from 17 urban centers.