ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s weekly inflation increased by 42.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in the week ending on Dec. 21, the country’s statistics bureau reported on Friday.
The weekly inflation, or the sensitive price indicator (SPI), is computed to assess the price movement of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country.
The SPI comprises 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.
“During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 18 (35.29 percent) items increased, 09 (17.65 percent) items decreased and 24 (47.06 percent) items remained stable,” the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said in its summary.
“The year-on-year trend depicts increase of 42.60 percent.”
However, the SPI for the current week decreased by 0.51 percent as compared to the previous week, according to the PBS.
A major increase was observed in prices of gas for Q1 (1108.59 percent), cigarettes (93.22 percent), chili powder (81.74 percent), wheat flour (78.80 percent), garlic (72.48 percent), basmati rice (62.52 percent), tomatoes (56.89 percent), sugar (50.33 percent) and jaggery (49.86 percent).
The commodities whose prices decreased included onions (23.92 percent), mustard oil (4.24 percent), vegetable ghee 1 kilogram (1.59 percent) and Bananas (0.06 percent).
