ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended March 18, 2021 recorded a decrease of 0.19 percent over the last week due to decline in prices of chicken (6.63 percent), garlic (4 percent), onions (3.67 percent), pulse gram (0.55 percent), pulse masoor (0.52percent) and among non-food items LPG (0.67 percent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

According to the latest data, the SPI went down from 147.14 points during the week ended March 11, 2021 to 146.86 points during the week under review.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.14 percent) items increased, 09 (17.65 percent) items decreased and 20 (39.22 percent) items remained constant, said the PBS in weekly SPI data.

The PBS data further stated that the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 13.48percent with most of the items increased mainly chilies powder (139.64percent), electricity for q1 (69.19percent), eggs (66.97percent), chicken (48.51percent), gents sandal (33.37percent), match box (30.47percent), mustard oil (28.56percent), gents sponge chappal (25.13percent), washing soap (21.41percent), sugar (20.54percent) and long cloth (19.58percent) while a major decrease was observed in the price of onions (48.35percent), garlic (38.42percent), LPG (15.42percent), potatoes (10.97percent), diesel (4.98percent) and tomatoes (3.55percent).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021