ISLAMABAD   -  The weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) wit­nessed an increase of 0.96 per cent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on April 4, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) re­ported on Friday. According to the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was re­corded at 326.29 points as compared to 323.20 points during the past week.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the com­bined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 29.45 per cent. The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 ur­ban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. The SPI for the low­est consumption group up to Rs. 17,732, increased by 0.83 per cent and went down to 315.95 points from last week’s 313.35 points. The SPI for consump­tion groups from Rs. 17,732-22,888, Rs. 22,889-29,517; Rs. 29,518-44,175 and above Rs. 44,175, increased by 0.90 per­cent, 0.85 percent, 0.93 and 1.02 percent respectively. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 16 (31.37%) items in­creased, 13 (25.49%) items decreased and 22 (43.14%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis, included bananas (3.57%), wheat flour (2.68%), eggs and LPG (1.89%) each, diesel (1.18%), gur (0.63%), sugar (0.41%), mustard oil (0.26%), pulse masoor (0.25%) and potatoes (0.23%). On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included ladies sandal (12.52%), tomatoes (11.93%), gents sandal (8.70%), petrol (3.45%), chicken (2.99%), long cloth (2.23%), onion (1.30%), bread (1.03%), beef (0.75%), garlic (0.70%), mutton (0.41%) and rice basmati broken (0.14%).

The commodities which recorded an decrease in their average prices on year-on-year basis included bananas (26.68%), cooking oil 5 litre (20.53%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (17.61%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (17.28%), mustard oil (14.22%), wheat flour (5.86%), diesel (3.61%), and cigarettes (0.06%). The commodities which recorded an increase in their av­erage prices included gas charges for Q1 ( 570.00%), onions (107.59%), chilies powder (86.05%), gents sandal (66.71%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), gar­lic (53.51%), tomatoes (35.77%), gur (34.00%), salt powder (32.78%), energy saver (29.83%), pulse mash (26.98%) and tea prepared (23.34%).