Pakistan's weekly inflation drops to 0.23%

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed a decrease of 0.23 percent for the combined consumption group during the week ended on November 30, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 308.20 points as compared to 308.90 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 41.05 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 0.23 percent and went down to 307.11 points from last week’s 307.81 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 0.26 percent, 0.25 percent, 0.24 percent and 0.21 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 13 (25.49%) items increased, 14 (27.45%) items decreased and 24 (47.06%) items remained stable. The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) included tomatoes (17.64%), potatoes (5.11%), chicken (3.58%), sugar (2.01%), tea lipton (1.29%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.87%), wheat flour (0.39%), LPG (0.16%) and pulse moong (0.14%).

The items that recorded an increase in their average prices on a week-on-week (wow) basis, included onions (18.25%), banana (2.84%), garlic (2.35%), pulse gram (1.09%), pulse masoor (0.72%), rice irri-6/9 (0.44%), eggs (0.43%) and mustard oil (0.40%). On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, the items that witnessed decrease in prices included tomatoes (23.12%), onions (22.36%), mustard oil (4.09%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (3.12%) and vegetable ghee 2.5kg (1.19%).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on YoY basis included gas charges for q1 (1108.59%), cigarettes (94.20%), wheat flour (87.27%), chilies powder (81.74%), rice basmati broken (75.79%), garlic (73.65%), rice irri-6/9 (61.00%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), gents sandal (53.37%), gur (50.79%), tea packet (48.47%) and pulse mash (44.49%).