ISLAMABAD-The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed a decrease of 0.25 percent for the combined consumption group during the week ended on September 14, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.
The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 279.18 points as compared to 279.87 points during the past week, according to the PBS data.
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 26.25 percent.
The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs 17,732, decreased by 0.21 percent and went down to 284.66 points from last week’s 285.27 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 decreased by 0.23 percent, 0.25 percent, 0.27 and 0.27 percent respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 24 (47.06%) items increased, 08 (15.69%) items decreased and 19 (37.25%) items remained stable. The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) basis, included sugar (9.11%), chicken (5.47%), eggs (2.79%), bananas (0.86%), tea packet (0.59%), pulse gram (0.57%), vegetable 1 kg (0.16%) and cooking oil 5 litre (0.10%). The items, which recorded an increase in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) basis, included tomatoes (4.29%), garlic (4.21%), bread (3.92%), onions (3.60%), pulse masoor (3.19%), salt powdered (2.77%), shirting (1.68%), pulse moong (1.66%), lawn printed (1.32%), pulse mash (1.25%) and long cloth (1.18%).
The commodities that witnessed a decrease in prices on a year-on-year (YoY) basis included tomatoes (24.55%), electricity charges for q1 (21.96%), onions (5.31%) and pulse gram (0.26%).
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices included wheat flour (114.37%), gas charges for q1 (108.38%), cigarettes (98.11%), rice basmati broken (91.07%), sugar (90.27%), chilies powder (84.84%), rice irri-6/9 (82.03%),tea packet (76.19%), gur (73.95%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), salt powdered (55.08%), gents sandal (53.37%), bread (45.79%) and powdered milk (43.05%).