Prices of essential food items surge 0.6%

ISLAMABAD: Overall Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based weekly inflation for the week ended on August 12 recorded an increase of 0.61 per cent compared to the previous week, the SPI data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed on Friday.

The data had shown that prices of tomatoes and chicken surged on WoW basis by 37.47 per cent and by 9.21 per cent. Prices of garlic, potatoes, vegetable ghee (2.5 kg tin) and Gur also increased by 4.45 per cent, 1.31 per cent, 1.16 per cent and 1.07 per cent respectively.

On year-on-year basis, prices of tomatoes increased by 39.97 percent; chillies by 35.71 per cent; vegetable ghee (1kg) by 34.34 per cent; vegetable ghee (2.5 kg tin) by 34.15 per cent; mustard oil by 34.01 per cent; cooking oil (5 litre tin) by 32.89 per cent and chicken by 23.08 per cent.

Among non-food items, electricity tariffs for the first quarter increased by 60.81 per cent, LPG by 57.82 per cent, men’s sandal by 33.37 per cent and sponge chappal by 25.13 per cent.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 18 (35.29 per cent) items increased, six (11.76 per cent) items decreased and 27 (52.94 per cent) items remained unchanged.

The data had shown that prices of bananas and eggs decreased by 3.82 per cent and by 1.76 per cent respectively, on a week-on-week basis (WoW).

Prices of onions, Moong and Masoor pulse declined by 1.72 per cent, 1.32 percent and 0.37 per cent respectively. However, prices of LPG decreased by 0.71 per cent among non-food items.

On a year-on-year basis, prices of potatoes and Moong pulse fell by 21.8 per cent and by 20.20 per cent.

The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all groups.