Weekly inflation declines by 1.7% following government’s petrol price reduction
Published on: October 21, 2023.
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Weekly Inflation Decreases by 1.7% as Petrol Prices Decline
KARACHI: Pakistan’s sensitive price indicator (SPI) has provided some relief to consumers with a 1.70% decrease, as petrol prices fell by Rs40/litre, according to data for the week ending October 19.
The annualized SPI increased by 35.5%, which is a slight easing from the previous four weeks when it hovered around 38% year-on-year. The decline in SPI inflation can be attributed to the decrease in prices of petrol (12.31%), onions (8.45%), chicken (5.46%), diesel (4.68%), pulse masoor (3.38%), sugar (3.07%), garlic (2.24%), broken basmati rice (2.17%), gur (2.17%), bananas (1.56%), and LPG (1.17%).
On the other hand, there was a notable increase in the prices of eggs (3.44%), salt (2.63%), shirting (2.18%), mutton (1.01%), beef (0.84%), cooked beef (0.72%), georgette (0.52%), washing soap (0.48%), prepared tea (0.34%), cooked daal (0.34%), potatoes (0.25%), and whole firewood (0.22%).
Topline Securities reported on its X account, formerly Twitter, that Pakistan’s weekly SPI has decreased by 1.7% after two weeks and increased by 35.5% year-on-year, the lowest in the past four weeks.
During the week under review, the SPI stood at 278.04 points, compared to 282.86 points in the previous week, and 205.27 points in the week ending October 20, 2022. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) collects prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets in 17 cities to compile the SPI.
Out of the 51 items, prices of 14 (27.45%) increased, 24 (47.06%) decreased, and 13 (25.49%) remained stable.
For different spending groups, the year-on-year SPI now stands at 34.96%, 37.79%, 36.46%, 34.89%, and 31.19% for those spending up to Rs17,732; Rs17,733-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175; and above Rs44,175, respectively.
PBS data also revealed that the group spending between Rs17,733-22,888 experienced the highest increase in SPI, while those spending more than Rs44,175 had the lowest impact.
According to PBS data, the year-on-year trend of the SPI reflects a 35.5% increase as a result of higher prices for electricity charges for Q1 (136.89%), gas charges for Q1 (108.38%), cigarettes (94.46%), chilli powder (84.11%), broken basmati rice (81.74%), wheat flour (80.73%), rice irri-6/9 (71.43%), sugar (66.29%), gur (61.50%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), salt (57.40%), and tea (56.27%).
However, there has been a year-on-year decline in the prices of tomatoes (45.75%), onions (23.76%), pulse gram (5.63%), mustard oil (2.12%), and vegetable ghee (0.62%).
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