Pakistan’s weekly inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), dropped by 0.81 percent for all spending groups during the week ending May 29, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday. The SPI for this week stood at 309.80 points, down from 312.34 points last week. Compared to the same week last year, the SPI showed a slight increase of 0.41 percent.
The SPI, which is calculated using 2015-16 as the base year, includes data from 17 urban centers and tracks the prices of 51 essential items for all income groups. For the lowest income group, those spending up to Rs 17,732, the SPI decreased by 0.67 percent, falling from 300.18 points to 298.17 points. Similarly, for the other income brackets—Rs 17,732 to 22,888; Rs 22,889 to 29,517; Rs 29,518 to 44,175; and above Rs 44,175—the SPI dropped by 0.95 percent, 0.69 percent, 0.63 percent, and 0.74 percent respectively.
Out of the 51 items monitored, prices of 14 items increased, 10 items decreased, while 27 items remained unchanged. The items that saw the biggest price drops during the week included electricity charges for Q1, chicken, LPG, sugar, powdered milk, vegetable ghee (2.5kg), wheat flour, rice (Irri-6/9), garlic, and pulse moong. On the other hand, the items with the highest price increases included tomatoes, potatoes, eggs, onions, gur, bananas, mustard oil, cigarettes, pulse mash, pulse gram, pulse masoor, and broken basmati rice.
Over the past year, some items became significantly more expensive, such as ladies sandals, chicken, eggs, pulse moong, powdered milk, sugar, bananas, pulse gram, beef, LPG, and vegetable ghee. Meanwhile, others became cheaper, including onions, electricity charges for Q1, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, tea packets, pulse mash, wheat flour, petrol, pulse masoor, diesel, and chili powder.
