Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on May 19 for the combined consumption group, witnessed an increase of 1.42pc as compared to the previous week. The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 175.08 points against 172.63 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released here Friday. As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 16.54pc. The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed 1.46pc increase and went up from 182.03 points in last week to 184.69 points during the week under review. Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs44,175 increased by 1.58pc, 1.54pc and 1.52pc and 1.30pc respectively. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 33 (64.71pc) items increased, 04 (7.84pc) items decreased and 14 (27.45pc) items remained stable. The items, which recorded decrease in their average prices on WoW basis, included bananas (2.97pc), tomatoes (0.20pc), potatoes (0.11pc) and gur (0.07pc).
The commodities, which recorded increase in their average prices, included ; chicken (9.03pc), pulse Masoor (6.30pc), eggs (4.24pc), wheat flour (3.99pc), pulse gram (3.86pc), rice basmati broken (3.11pc), mustard oil (2.99pc), rice irri-6/9 (2.67pc), pulse mash (1.86pc), curd (1.68pc), onions (1.38pc) and milk fresh (1.18pc), energy saver (4.37pc) and long cloth (1.97pc). On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices included chillies powdered (39.50pc), bananas (25.21pc), pulse moong (24.40pc), potatoes (20.78pc), sugar (14.13pc) and electricity charges for Q1 (11.71pc). The commodities that witnessed increase in prices included tomatoes (171.18pc), onions (147.18pc), LPG (99.65pc), garlic (81.51pc), pulse masoor (61.69pc), mustard oil (61.05pc), cooking oil 5 litre (60.43pc), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (59.80pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (59.09pc), washing soap (39.96pc), petrol (37.42pc) and diesel (29.63pc).
