Short-term Inflation Remains Above 42%: Latest Update
Published on: December 23, 2023.
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ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) has recorded a 42.6% increase in short-term inflation for the week ending Dec 21 on an annual basis. This marks the sixth consecutive week that the inflation index has remained above 41%, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. However, on a week-on-week basis, the SPI decreased by 0.5%.
The SPI is computed weekly to monitor the price movement of essential commodities and assess the price situation in the country. It includes 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics stated that the year-on-year trend shows a 42.6% increase in the SPI, attributing the spike to a massive 1,109% increase in gas rates, as well as the rising prices of kitchen essentials such as wheat, rice, chillies, tomatoes, and sugar.
During the week ending Dec 21, cigarette prices increased by 93.22%, while chilli powder became almost 82% more expensive compared to the previous year. Wheat flour prices rose by 78.8%, garlic by 72.5%, broken rice basmati by 62.5%, and rice IRRI-6 and 9 by 59.45%.
Other notable price increases include gents sponge chappal (58.05%), tomatoes (56.89%), Gents Sandal (53.37%), Sugar (50.33%), and Gur (49.86%). On the other hand, there were decreases in the prices of onions (23.92%), mustard oil (4.24%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.59%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.62%), and bananas (0.06%) on an annualized basis.
In comparison to the previous week, the SPI for the week ending Dec 21 decreased slightly by 0.51%. There were decreases in the prices of potatoes (13.17%), petrol super (4.97%), diesel (4.68%), tomatoes (3.45%), sugar (1.16%), wheat flour bag (0.33%), chicken (0.13%), rice Basmati broken (0.11%), and cooking oil 5-litre (0.07%). Conversely, there were significant increases in the prices of eggs (10.42%), firewood whole (1.23%), onions (1.19%), pulse moong (0.88%), pulse gram (0.79%), garlic and rice IRRI-6/9 (0.40%) each, pulse masoor (0.30%), LPG (0.26%), bananas (0.19%), shirting (0.15%), and georgette (0.13%).
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics noted that out of the 51 items, the prices of 18 items (35.29%) increased, while the prices of nine items (17.65%) decreased, and the prices of 24 items (47.06%) remained stable during the week under review.
The SPI inflation hit a record 48.35% in early May on an annual basis, but it gradually decreased to as low as 24.4% in late August. However, it has been above 40% since the week ending on Nov 16.
Source: Dawn
