Weekly inflation rises 3.53% year-on-year

Sugar, energy and flour prices fuel increase in SPI reading

ISLAMABAD:

The weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) registered an increase of 0.07% for the combined consumption group during the week ended November 20, 2025, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported on Friday.

The SPI reading for the week reached 335.54 points, up from 335.31 in the previous week. On a year-on-year basis, the SPI rose 3.53%.

The weekly SPI covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. For the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 per month, the index increased 0.07%, rising to 329.13 points from 328.89 last week.

The inflation index for consumption groups including Rs17,733-22,888, Rs22,889-29,517, Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs44,175 rose 0.07%, 0.04%, 0.03% and 0.09% respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 16 (31.37%) items increased, 13 (25.49%) items decreased and 22 (43.14%) items remained unchanged.

Major commodities registering a week-on-week increase included tomatoes (57.03%), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, 5.16%), garlic (2.61%), sugar (2.23%), diesel (2.17%), georgette (0.80%), bananas (0.72%), prepared tea (0.59%), firewood (0.26%), 1kg vegetable ghee (0.21%), beef (0.17%) and mustard oil (0.13%).

The commodities showing a decline in prices were onions (-12.38%), chicken (-8.07%), potatoes (-5.69%), powdered salt (-1.67%), pulse moong (-1.62%), wheat flour (-1.41%), pulse gram (-0.81%) and eggs (-0.48%).

On a year-on-year basis, the major price increases were observed in sugar (43.77%), gas charges for Q1 (29.85%), wheat flour (17.31%), gur (16.35%), beef (13.45%), firewood (12.52%), bananas (11.81%), diesel (11.66%), 2.5kg vegetable ghee (9.04%), printed lawn (8.29%), powdered milk (8.17%) and five-litre cooking oil (7.75%).