Short-Term Inflation in Pakistan Eases to Over Two Year Low

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended August 1, 2024, recorded an increase of 18.41 percent on a year-on-year basis, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). According to Arif Habib Limited (AHL), the year-on-year reading is the lowest in over two years i.e. since May 26, 2022. The year-on-year trend depicted an increase mainly due to increase in the prices of gas charges for q1 (570 percent), onions (86.53 percent), pulse gram (41.78 percent), powered milk (32.32 percent), pulse moong (30.21 percent), garlic (27.88 percent), salt powder (23.28 percent), beef (23.13 percent), pulse mash (21.22 percent) and energy saver (17.96 percent). While major decrease was observed in the prices of wheat flour (32.28 percent), electricity charges for q1 (15.46 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (13.44 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (9.99 percent), vegetable ghee 1 kg (9.21 percent), eggs (7.90 percent), chili powder (7.04 percent), mustard oil (6.80 percent), rice basmati broken (5.68 percent), petrol (1.20 percent) and diesel (0.16 percent). On a week-on-week basis, the SPI-based inflation decreased by 0.12 percent due to decrease in the prices of electricity charges for q1 (15.80 percent), diesel (3.81 percent), petrol (2.23 percent), wheat flour (0.98 percent) and sugar (0.21 percent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 24 (47.06 percent) items increased, 7 (13.72 percent) items decreased and 20 (39.22 percent) items remained stable.