Rising flour prices fuel weekly inflation

In the week ending October 22, short-term inflation in Pakistan surged to 11.85 percent year-on-year, primarily driven by elevated wheat flour prices, according to official figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. This index, which includes 51 essential commodities tracked across 50 markets in 17 cities, provides a weekly snapshot of price fluctuations for crucial goods and services.

The persistent rise in fuel costs has been a key factor behind the double-digit inflation trend that has persisted for several consecutive weeks. Of the 51 items monitored, 19 experienced price hikes (37.72 percent), 12 saw price reductions (23.53 percent), and 20 remained stable (39.22 percent) compared to the previous week. The Sensitive Price Index, which gauges short-term inflation, experienced a modest 0.65 percent increase on a week-on-week basis, indicating volatility in both food and non-food sectors.

The government's reluctance to adjust the petroleum levy has resulted in ongoing daily increases in petrol and diesel prices. This energy cost escalation not only exacerbates inflationary pressures but also indirectly stimulates sales tax revenue through higher prices of goods and services. Consequently, households are facing increased consumer prices.

Prices of items such as liquefied petroleum gas, chicken, onions, shirting, plain bread, wheat flour, garlic, firewood, georgette, and vegetable ghee saw the most significant year-on-year increases, while tomatoes, petrol, banana, diesel, potatoes, pulse gram, eggs, powdered milk, broken rice, basmati, and sugar recorded notable declines.

On an annual basis, LPG prices surged by 107.12 percent, onions by 72.81 percent, and electricity for Q1 by 58.59 percent. Conversely, tomato prices plummeted by 71.72 percent, preceded by declines in potatoes (40.75 percent), sugar (25 percent), eggs (22.14 percent), salt powder (14.86 percent), pulse masoor (9.08 percent), gur (8.98 percent), and pulse moong (7.05 percent).