Weekly Inflation Skyrockets to 42.6% Due to Expensive Energy
Published on: December 9, 2023.
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Short-Term Inflation Soars in Pakistan as Gas and Electricity Prices Surge
The week ending on December 7th saw a significant increase in short-term inflation in Pakistan, with a surge of 42.68% compared to the previous year. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported that this inflationary trend was primarily driven by higher gas and electricity prices.
For the fourth consecutive week, the weekly inflation rate remained above 41%. Gas prices, in particular, skyrocketed by over 1,100% compared to the previous year. This unprecedented rise in prices has had a severe impact on consumer purchasing power, placing a considerable financial burden on households.
In addition to gas, electricity prices also saw an increase of 2.03% during the review week compared to the previous week.
On an annual basis, several key items experienced substantial price increases. Gas charges for Q1 rose by 1,108.59%, while cigarettes saw a surge of 94.20%. Other notable increases include wheat flour (85.05%), chilies powder (81.74%), garlic (73.09%), rice basmati broken (68.53%), rice IRRI 6/9 (60.94%), gents sponge chappal (58.05%), gents sandal (53.37%), gur (50.56%), tea lipton (44.65%), and pulse mash (44.04%).
In contrast, the prices of onions experienced a significant decrease of 22.59% year-on-year, followed by tomatoes (6.97%), mustard oil (4.04%), vegetable ghee 1 Kg (3%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (1.30%), and bananas (0.01%).
The Short-Term Inflation Index, known as the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), measures the weekly inflation rate by considering a basket of goods and services. In the week under review, the SPI stood at 308.90, slightly lower than the previous week’s value of 309.09.
The SPI is calculated based on 51 items obtained from 50 markets in 17 cities. It enables a more frequent assessment of the prices of essential commodities and services.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, out of the 51 items included in the index, the prices of 15 items increased, 14 items decreased, and 22 items remained stable compared to the previous week.
Among the items that saw the highest price increase on a weekly basis were onions (8.42%), eggs (2.52%), pulse moong (0.88%), sugar (0.84%), bananas (0.67%), firewood (0.55%), LPG (0.42%), tea prepared (0.37%), pulse masoor (0.10%), mustard oil (0.09%), and curd (0.02%).
On the other hand, the items that experienced the most significant price decrease included tomatoes (9.82%), potatoes (4.34%), chicken (2.99%), tea lipton (2.58%), diesel (2.31%), rice basmati broken (2%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.43%), cooking oil 5-litre (0.38%), wheat flour (0.35%), pulse gram (0.27%), and vegetable ghee 1kg (0.16%).
Over the year, the SPI inflation reached a record of 48.35% in early May but then declined to as low as 24.4% in late August before surpassing 40% during the week ending on November 16th.
Sources: Dawn
