Short-term inflation rises to 11.32pc in last week of October, driven by perishable food prices

Islamabad, October 29 - Official data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday revealed that short-term inflation in Pakistan rose to 11.32% year-on-year in the week ending October 29. The index, which tracks prices of 51 essential items collected from markets across 17 cities, is calculated weekly to monitor fluctuations in commodity and service prices.

Short-term inflation has been persistently high in double digits due to continuous increases in petroleum and diesel prices. Of the 51 monitored items, 15 experienced price hikes while 12 saw price reductions, with the remaining 24 remaining stable from the previous week. The Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which also reflects short-term inflation, slightly decreased by 0.35% week-on-week, indicating mixed price trends in both food and non-food sectors.

The government's refusal to reduce petroleum levies has led to sustained hikes in petrol and diesel prices, contributing to overall inflationary pressures and indirectly boosting sales tax collections. Cost-push inflation, driven by rising energy costs, has pushed up food prices, causing significant strain on households. Among the items with the highest weekly price increases were tomatoes (34.91%), potatoes (3.27%), diesel (2.53%), pulse gram (2.11%), plain bread (1.29%), onions (0.62%), fresh milk (0.48%), curd (0.46%), vegetable ghee (0.29%), and firewood (0.2%).

Conversely, electricity charges for Q1 (3.92%), chicken (2.95%), eggs (2.81%), wheat flour (0.83%), LPG (0.73%), bananas (0.71%), rice IRRI-6/9 and masoor pulse (0.43% each), petrol (0.39%), sugar (0.35%), and powdered milk (0.33%) witnessed price declines. On an annual basis, LPG (106.86%), electricity charges for Q1 (52.38%), diesel (45.13%), petrol (43.61%), wheat flour (34.87%), chicken (31.72%), chilli powder (15.55%), mutton (14.66%), plain bread (12.26%), beef (12.10%), onions (8.99%), and prepared tea (8.41%) recorded the most substantial price hikes, while potato prices fell by 38.67%, followed by tomatoes (27.99%), eggs (26.70%), sugar (25.21%), powdered salt (14.86%), gur (8.51%), masoor pulse (8.37%), and moong pulse (6.42%).