Weekly SPI inflation up 0.21pc

Islamabad reported that the Sensitive Price Index-based inflation rose by 0.21 percent for the week concluding October 1. This increase resulted from a 7.25 percent price surge in chicken, a 1.85 percent lift in garlic, a 1.30 percent rise in pulse gram, and a 1.17 percent surge in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data, published on Friday, also revealed that egg prices jumped 0.72 percent, rice IRRI-6/9 climbed 0.55 percent, onions increased 0.39 percent, washing soap rose 0.33 percent, wheat flour went up 0.29 percent, and cloth and lawn printed boosted by 0.19 percent each.

Conversely, diesel prices fell 3.43 percent, bananas decreased by 1.52 percent, sugar went down 1.05 percent, potatoes declined 0.96 percent, petrol slipped 0.65 percent, pulse moong dropped 0.63 percent, tomatoes reduced 0.51 percent, pulse masoor fell 0.42 percent, gur went down 0.12 percent, and powdered milk decreased by 0.10 percent.

Of the 51 items studied, the SPI highlighted that 20 items (39.21 percent of the basket) saw price hikes, while 10 items (19.61 percent) experienced reductions, and 21 items (41.18 percent) remained unchanged.

Year-on-Year (YoY) trends revealed an overall increase of 11.53 percent, primarily driven by significant price hikes in onions (114.20 percent), LPG (66.59 percent), electricity for Q1 (58.59 percent), diesel (44.50 percent), petrol (44.05 percent), wheat flour (32.65 percent), chili powder (15.55 percent), mutton (15.07 percent), chicken (13.60 percent), beef (12.90 percent), bread plain (8.96 percent), and fresh milk (8.10 percent).

On a YoY basis, major downward movements were observed in tomatoes (-45.52 percent), potatoes (-39.54 percent), sugar (-21.95 percent), eggs (-17.47 percent), salt powder (-14.81 percent), pulse masoor (-10.92 percent), pulse gram (-9.90 percent), and pulse moong (-8.20 percent).

When analyzed by income groups, households earning up to Rs17,732 experienced a 0.19 percent increase in SPI, rising from 354.06 to 354.74 points. For those earning Rs17,733-22,888, SPI increased by 0.20 percent, moving from 357.40 to 358.13 points. For the Rs22,889-29,517 income group, SPI went up by 0.22 percent, rising from 377.88 to 378.66 points.

The Rs29,518-44,175 bracket saw an increase of 0.21 percent, taking SPI from 365.21 to 366.01 points. The highest income group (Rs44,175 and above) also recorded a 0.21 percent SPI increase, moving from 369.45 to 370.22 points.

Overall, the combined SPI climbed from 369.69 points to 370.40 points, marking an overall inflation increase of 0.21 percent.