Weekly Inflation Increases Due to Rising Food Prices

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended on October 03, 2024, increased by 0.44 percent mainly due to an increase in the prices of tomatoes (18.51 percent), onions (5.89 percent), chicken (3.72 percent), wheat flour (3.63 percent) and LPG (0.98 percent), says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 21 (41.18 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased and 20 (39.21 percent) items remained stable. The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 13.18 percent mainly due to increase in the prices of gas charges for q1 (570 percent), pulse gram (65.33 percent), onions (43.49 percent), tomatoes (41.58 percent), powdered milk (25.36 percent), beef (24.97 percent), chicken (24.90 percent), shirting (20.17 percent), pulse moong (16.29 percent), salt powder (15.38 percent), georgette (13.81 percent) and energy saver (12.87 percent), while major decrease is observed in the prices of wheat flour (35.67 percent), petrol (23.51 percent), diesel (22.48 percent), chilies powder (20.00 percent), electricity charges for q1 (13.47 percent), sugar (12.65 percent), cooking oil 5 liter (10.74 percent), rice basmati broken (10.34 percent), pulse masoor (7.90 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (6.04 percent), gur (5.66 percent) and LPG (3.94 percent).