Weekly inflation rises 9.11pc

Official data released on Friday revealed that short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), surged by 9.11 percent year-on-year for the week ending August 13. The rise primarily resulted from escalating prices of non-perishable food products. Consecutive inflation increases have been predominantly fueled by daily fluctuations in petroleum prices, leading to higher transportation costs that subsequently impacted essential food items' prices.

On a week-on-week basis, the SPI rose by 0.5 percent, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The SPI exhibited a broad-based increase, underscoring persistent pressure on the cost of living. This sharp rise was mainly driven by significant gains in key items on a year-on-year basis, including tomatoes (143.77 percent), onions (125.75 percent), wheat flour (77.41 percent), diesel (34.05 percent), petrol (23.02 percent), LPG (55.41 percent), and beef (13.42 percent).

Food inflation remained high, with substantial increases in the prices of onions, tomatoes, potatoes, mutton, beef, and wheat flour.

The SPI has documented an increase for the 70th consecutive week. Although the growth pace has decelerated, it still signifies ongoing pressure on consumers. Among the items whose prices escalated most compared to the previous week were onions (24.68 percent), pulse gram (3.35 percent), chicken (2.45 percent), LPG (0.67 percent), tea Lipton (0.63 percent), mustard oil (0.45 percent), curd (0.34 percent), pulse masoor (0.24 percent), garlic (0.22 percent), and washing soap (0.11 percent).

Conversely, prices declined for some commodities, such as petrol (2.35 percent), tomatoes (1.26 percent), potatoes (0.73 percent), bananas (0.36 percent), pulse moong (0.35 percent), diesel (0.29 percent), pulse mash (0.27 percent), eggs (0.19 percent), sugar (0.11 percent), and gur (0.10 percent).

However, on an annual basis, notable price increases were observed for tomatoes (143.77 percent), onions (125.75 percent), wheat flour (77.41 percent), LPG (55.41 percent), diesel (34.05 percent), petrol (23.02 percent), bananas (17.65 percent), gentlemen's sponge chappal (16.69 percent), chili powder (16.37 percent), mutton (15.98 percent), beef (13.42 percent), and plain bread (9.37 percent).

Meanwhile, prices dropped significantly for potatoes (30 percent), followed by sugar (17.93 percent), chicken (17.45 percent), pulse gram (14.39 percent), salt powder (13.96 percent), pulse masoor (12.56 percent), eggs (11.70 percent), and pulse moong (5.89 percent). The SPI, comprising 51 items collected from 50 markets across 17 cities, is computed weekly to gauge the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals.

Data indicated that 20 items experienced price increases, nine decreased, and 22 remained unchanged compared to the previous week.