Weekly inflation falls slightly, but still high on yearly basis

The latest data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) shows that the weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), declined by 0.78 per cent for the week ending February 15, 2024. However, the SPI was still 34.25 per cent higher than the same period last year, reported 24NewsHD TV channel Friday. 

The SPI monitors the prices of 51 essential items from the consumption basket of different income groups. Out of these items, the average price of 22 items increased, 11 items decreased, and 18 items remained unchanged.

Eggs, chicken, onions among items that saw price decline

The data showed that the prices of some food items declined during the week, such as eggs (28.82%), chicken (4.23%), onions (3.48%), LPG (2.85%), and gur (1.13%).

On the other hand, some food items witnessed an increase in their prices, such as bananas (4.64%), potatoes (2.80%), match box (1.31%), long cloth (1.29%), and cooked daal (0.77%).

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups revealed that SPI decreased across all quantiles ranging between -0.82% and -0.72%.

The Lowest Income Group saw a weekly decline of 0.78% in SPI while the highest income group recorded a decrease of 0.77%.

On an annual basis, the SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 28.68% and 38.54%.

Yearly SPI for the Lowest Income Group rose by 28.68% while the highest income group registered an increase of 32.08%.

The average price of Sona urea dropped to Rs4,513 per 50 kg bag which is 0.50% lower than last week’s price while 54.84% higher when compared to last year.

Meanwhile, the average cement price was recorded at Rs1,234 per 50 kg bag, which is 2.05% higher than the previous week and 14.27% higher than prices last year.

The PBS did not release the SPI data for the previous week, while the week before that showed a marginal decline of 0.28 per cent in the weekly inflation.

Reporter: Waqas Azeem