Weekly Inflation Down to 4%, Lowest Level Since 2018

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) based inflation for the week ended November 14, 2024, increased by 4.16 on a year-on-year basis, according to the data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).  According to brokerage house Topline Securities, the year-on-year number is the lowest in six years (last seen in October 2018).  The year-on-year trend depicts an increase mainly due to an increase in the prices of pulse gram (74.53 percent), pulse moong (38.88 percent), powdered milk (25.74 percent), beef (23.02 percent), onions (22.78 percent), garlic (17.41 percent), gas charges for q1 ( 15.52 percent), shirting (15.22 percent), cooked daal (14.78 percent), mutton (13.79 percent), firewood (13.72 percent) and georgette (13.07 percent),  While major decrease was observed in the prices of wheat flour (34.98 percent), chilies powder (20.00 percent), diesel (13.92 percent), petrol (11.64 percent), tea lipton (11.22 percent), rice basmati broken (7.89 percent), tomatoes (6.59 percent), pulse masoor (5.69 percent), bread (5.55 percent), electricity charges for q1 (5.07 percent) and cooking oil 5 litre (4.86 percent).  On the other hand, the SPI based inflation increased by 0.55 percent on week-on-week basis due to an increase in the prices of tomatoes (16.86 percent), eggs (5.01 percent), garlic (4.30 percent) and LPG (4.10 percent).  During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 24 (47.06 percent) items increased, 06 (11.76 percent) items decreased, and 21 (41.18 percent) items remained stable.