ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the current week, ended 26th October 2023, decreased by 0.33 per cent due to a decline in the prices of food items including chicken (10.19 per cent), onions (4.4 per cent), rice IRRI-6/9 (3.84 per cent), bananas (3.64 per cent), gur(3.4 per cent), masoor(2.36 per cent), sugar (2.22 per cent), and mustard oil (2.17 per cent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 29.65 per cent, mainly due to an increase in the prices of gas charges for Q1 (108.38 per cent), cigarettes (94.46 per cent), chilies powder (84.11 per cent), rice basmati broken (78.51 per cent), wheat flour (77.49 per cent), sugar (63.22 per cent), rice Irri-6/9 (62.83 per cent), gents sponge chappal (58.05 per cent), gur (57.73 per cent) and salt powdered (54.84 per cent) while decrease is observed in the prices of tomatoes (31.90 per cent), onions (24.88 per cent), pulse gram (5.82 per cent), mustard oil (4.16 per cent) and vegetable ghee 1kg (0.92 per cent).

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 14 (27.45 per cent) items increased, 17 (33.33 per cent) items decreased, and 20 (39.22 per cent) items remained stable.

The SPI for the week under review was recorded at 277.11 points against 278.04 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data released on Friday.

The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs17,732, Rs17,732-Rs22,888, Rs22,889 Rs29,517,Rs29,518-Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 decreased by 0.25 per cent, 0.31 per cent, 0.33 per cent, 0.36 per cent and 0.33 per cent, respectively.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023