ISLAMABAD (Daily Point) — During the week ending on December 21, the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) reported a notable 0.51 percent decrease in weekly inflation across combined consumption groups, as revealed by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
The SPI, measuring at 310.00 points for the week in review, exhibited a decline from the previous week’s 311.58 points, according to PBS data.
In comparison to the corresponding week in the previous year, the SPI for the combined consumption group experienced a significant increase of 42.60 percent during the current week.
The weekly SPI, calculated with the base year 2015-16 =100, encompasses 17 urban centers and monitors 51 essential items for various expenditure groups.
For the lowest consumption group, up to Rs 17,732, the SPI decreased by 0.39 percent, reaching 304.83 points compared to the previous week’s 306.02 points.
Similarly, for consumption groups ranging from Rs 17,732 to Rs 44,175 and above Rs 44,175, the SPI saw decreases of 0.40 percent, 0.39 percent, 0.44 percent, and 0.59 percent, respectively.
Throughout the week, out of 51 items tracked, 18 items (35.29%) saw price increases, 9 items (17.65%) experienced price decreases, and 24 items (47.06%) remained stable.
Items that witnessed a decrease in average prices on a week-on-week (WoW) basis included 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 liters (0.07%).
Conversely, items that recorded an increase in average prices on a week-on-week basis were eggs (10.42%), firewood whole (1.23%), onions (1.19%), pulse moong (0.88%), pulse gram (0.79%), garlic & rice irri-6/9 (0.40% each), pulse masoor (0.30%), LPG (0.26%), bananas (0.19%), shirting (0.15%), and georgette (0.13%).
On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, items that experienced a decrease in prices included f onions (23.92%), mustard oil (4.24%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.59%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.62%), and bananas (0.06%).
