Items get a tad too expensive after Eid

After Eidul Azha, the weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined income group increased by 0.70% in a week, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

Similarly, the annual SPI has been 28.55%. The combined index was at 257.79 on July 6, 2023 in comparison with 256 on June 22, 2023. The index was recorded at 200.53 a year ago on July 6, 2022.

According to the PBS, the prices of 24 items increased during the week, 10 reduced, while that of 17 remained unchanged.

During this period, the price of tomatoes went up by 42%, onions by 8.70%, potatoes 4.79%, wheat flour 4%, jaggery 4%, sugar 3.48%, diesel 2.95%, garlic by 1.90%, matchboxes 1.66%, yoghurt 1.43%, black grams 1.29%, fresh milk 1.20%, rice irri-6/9 0.74%, basmati rice broken 0.67%, mustard oil 0.59%, prepared tea 0.56%, mutton 0.40%, beef with bone 0.39%, toilet soap 0.24%, powdered milk 0.13% and cooked lentils 0.04%.

On an annual basis, the price of wheat flour increased by 122%, cigarettes 112.94%, branded tea 102.86%, basmati rice broken 77.40%, rice irri-6/9 74.61%, potatoes 69.06%, chicken meat 63.22%, powdered salt 51.61%, sugar 50.08%, bananas 48.96% and bread 46.86%.

A yearly decrease was seen in the prices of onions by 23.94%, tomatoes by 13.26%, red lentils 7.17%, diesel 5.82%, and vegetable ghee per kilo by 0.81%.

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices during the week over the previous one, include bananas by 7.51%, chicken meat 2.80%, eggs 1.17%, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) 0.96%, 2.5kg tin of vegetable ghee by 0.74%, five-litre tin of branded cooking oil 0.72%, one-kg pouch of superior quality vegetable ghee 0.81%, red lentils 0.47%, yellow split grams 0.31% and split chickpea lentils 0.24%.

The data indicates that inflation for the expenditure groups Q1 (up to Rs17,732) and Q2 (Rs17,733 to Rs22,888) increased by 28.92% and 29.23%, respectively, on a yearly basis during the week under review.

The middle expenditure groups, Q3 (Rs22,889 to Rs29,517) and Q4 (Rs29,518 to Rs44,175), were hit by even greater inflation hikes of 30.53% and 30.25%, respectively.

The highest expenditure group, Q5 (above Rs44,175), experienced a 29.36% increase in inflation.