ISLAMABAD: The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), went down by 0.52 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week that concluded on September 19, said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.
As per the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group stood at 317.61 points as compared to 319.28 points during the past week.
While comparing the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review recorded an increase of 12.72 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 of up to Rs 17,732 decreased by 0.42 percent and went down to 310.84 points from last week’s 312.14 points.
The SPI for consumption groups of Rs 17,732 to 22,888; Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175, reduced by 0.45 percent, 0.44 percent, 0.48 percent and 0.58 percent respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.34%) items raised, 15 (29.41%) items reduced and 19 (37.25%) items remained stable.
The items, which registered major reduction in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included diesel (5.00%), petrol (3.88%), onions (4.45%), sugar (0.70%), tomatoes (1.93%), potatoes & LPG (0.57%) each, pulse moong (0.44%), cooking oil 5 litre (0.45%), cigarettes (0.25%), pulse masoor (0.30%),and pulse mash (0.24%).
The items which witnessed major increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included chicken (1.49%), cooked daal (0.81%), pulse gram (0.83%), shirting (0.74%), eggs (0.69%), cooked beef (0.72%), garlic (0.65%), georgette (0.50%) gur (0.59%), and salt powder.
On-year basis, the commodities that saw decrease included wheat flour (38.14%), diesel (24.06%), petrol (24.73%), electricity charges for q1 (13.47%), chilies powder (20.00%), sugar (11.42%), cooking oil 5 litre (11.13%), pulse masoor (8.63%), gur (7.68%), rice basmati broken (9.96%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (6.43%) and LPG (2.47%).
The items which witnessed an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included gas charges for q1 (570.00%), pulse gram (57.34%), onions (74.62%), powdered milk (25.45%), shirting (20.17%), tomatoes (17.98%), beef (25.31%), pulse moong (16.41%), salt powder (15.38%), cooked daal (15.65%), georgette (13.78%) and energy saver (12.87%).
