Weekly inflation up by 0.92%

44.49% hike witnessed on year-on-year basis

ISLAMABAD:

After a temporary respite, the prices of essential items started increasing again in the week that ended on April 6 -- with the inflation rate recording an increase of 44.49% on a yearly basis, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday reported.

The short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), for the week witnessed a hike of 0.92%.

During the week, of the 51 essential items monitored by the SPI based on a survey of 50 markets in 17 cities in the country, the prices of 27 of them increased, seven declined and 17 remained unchanged.

The prices of the 27 essential items increased collectively by 52.94%.

Similarly, the collective reduction in the rates of seven essential goods stood at 13.73%.

A major hike was witnessed in the prices of food items -- including chicken meat by 15.87%, sugar by 13.48%, potatoes by 5.11%, bananas by 4.95%, wheat flour by 3.10%, gur (jaggery) by 2.12%, eggs by 1.26%, and milk fresh by 1.24%.

As for non-food items, the rate of long cloth went up by 1.95%.

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However, a decrease was witnessed in the prices of tomatoes by 14.96%, onions by 12.66%, LPG by 3.73%, pulse gram by 1.20%, 2.5 kilogrammes of vegetable ghee by 0.71%, garlic by 0.16%, and mustard oil by 0.03%.

On a yearly basis, the prices of cigarettes went up by 165.88%, wheat flour by 131.72%, gas charges for Q1 by 108.38%, diesel by 102.84%, eggs by 98.34%, branded tea by 97.63%, rice basmati broken by 84.92%, bananas by 82.23%, petrol by 81.17%, rice irri-6/9 by 80.61%, pulse moong by 68.14%, potatoes by 65.95%, pulse maash by 56.70%, and onions by 55.75%.

The prices of tomatoes dropped by 50.39% and powdered chillies by 6.48% in the period under review on an annual basis.

According to the statistics of the week under review, the inflation rate for the group with income of up to Rs17,732 per month on an annual basis was 40.43%.

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Similarly, for the group with income from Rs17,733 to Rs22,888 per month, the annual inflation rate stood at 43.42%.

For the group having income from Rs22,889 to Rs29,517 per month, the yearly inflation was registered at 43.85%.

For those having an income from Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 per month, the annual inflation rate was recorded at 44.22%.

The yearly rate of inflation has reached 46.47% for the group having a monthly income of more than Rs44,176.