ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended April 21, 2022 recorded a decrease of 1.28 percent mainly due to the decline in prices of food items, including tomatoes (44.41 percent), wheat, flour (8.16 percent), bananas (2.54 percent), potatoes (2.24 percent), sugar (0.82) and non-food items, electricity charges for Q1 (5.44 percent), and LPG (0.22 percent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 15.42 percent mainly due to increase in prices of onions (101.18 percent), garlic (80.93 percent), LPG (80.45 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (58.14 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (57.72 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (56.45 percent), mustard oil (56.29 percent), tomatoes (47.41 percent), masoor (42.99 percent), washing soap (39.33 percent), petrol (37.42 percent) and diesel (29.63 percent), while major decrease observed in the prices of chillies powdered (39.50 percent), moong (27.20 percent), potatoes (25.55 percent), eggs (13.80 percent), sugar (9.32 percent), and electricity charges for Q1 (4.37 percent).
According to the latest data, the SPI went down from 173.27 percent during the week ended April 14, 2022 to 171.05 percent during the week under review.
The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs17,732 and Rs17,733 to Rs22,888, Rs22,889 to Rs29,517 and Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and for above Rs44,175 decreased by 1.62 percent, 1.86 percent, 1.43 percent, 1.17 percent and 0.98 percent respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 19 (37.25 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 22 (43.14 percent) items remained stable, says the PBS.
The items the prices of which increased included onions (10.24 percent), chicken (1.82 percent), salt powdered (1.70 percent), eggs (1.65 percent), toilet soap (1.34 percent), masoor (0.95 percent), maash (0.76 percent), cooked beef (0.75 percent), cooked daal (0.69 percent), mustard oil (0.43 percent), mutton (0.42 percent), beef with bone (0.40 percent), Sufi washing soap (0.36 percent), vegetable ghee Dalda/Habib 2.5kg tin each (0.27 percent), curd (0.24 percent), tea Lipton Yellow Label (0.23 percent), tea prepared ordinary (0.20 percent), and milk fresh (0.16 percent).
The items the prices of which decreased included tomatoes (44.41 percent), wheat flour bag 20kg (8.16 percent), electricity charges for Q1 per unit (5.44 percent), bananas (2.54 percent), potatoes (2.24 percent), sugar (0.82 percent), garlic (0.77 percent), moong (0.51 percent), gur (0.34 percent), and LPG (0.22 percent).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022