Weekly inflation surges 11.53pc

Official data released on Friday revealed a sharp increase in short-term inflation, with the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) surging 11.53 per cent year on year for the week ending Oct 1. This sudden rise was primarily driven by a steep hike in food prices. On a week-on-week basis, the index rose by 0.21 per cent, indicating fluctuations in both food and non-food prices.

In a move that has not gone unnoticed, the government has consistently raised petrol and diesel prices on a daily basis, refraining from reducing the petroleum development levy. This decision has indirectly contributed to increased sales tax collection. Among the items that saw the most significant price rises over the previous week were chicken, garlic, pulse gram, LPG, eggs, rice, onions, washing soap, and wheat flour.

Conversely, diesel and a few other commodities experienced a decline in prices on a week-on-week basis. However, when analyzing the annual trends, onions saw the highest price increase of 114.20 per cent, followed by LPG at 66.59 per cent, electricity for Q1 at 58.59 per cent, diesel at 44.50 per cent, petrol at 44.05 per cent, wheat flour at 32.65 per cent, chilli powder at 15.55 per cent, mutton at 15.07 per cent, chicken at 13.60 per cent, beef at 12.90 per cent, plain bread at 8.96 per cent, and fresh milk at 8.10 per cent.

Conversely, tomatoes experienced the steepest price drop of 45.52 per cent, followed by potatoes (39.54 per cent), sugar (21.95 per cent), eggs (17.47 per cent), salt powder (14.81 per cent), pulse masoor (9.90 per cent), pulse gram (9.90 per cent), and pulse moong (8.20 per cent). The SPI, which comprises 51 items collected from 50 markets across 17 cities, is computed weekly to gauge the prices of essential commodities and services on a shorter interval basis.