The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on October 14, 2021 for the combined consumption group witnessed an increase of 0.20 percent, the second in a row, while it went 12.66 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, the combined index was at 159.26 on October 14, 2021 as compared to 158.94 on October 07, 2021 while the index was recorded at 141.36 a year ago on October 15, 2020. The SPI is computed on a weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country. The SPI comprises 51 essential items and the prices are being collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.
During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.13%) items increased, prices of 10 (19.60%) items decreased, while prices of 19 (37.25%) items remained stable.
The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of tomatoes (19.21%), mustard oil (3.12%), tea prepared (2.12%), LPG (2.07%), washing soap (1.98%), cooked daal (1.55%), tea Lipton (1.48%) and cooked beef (1.32%) was observed with joint impact of (0.34%) into the overall SPI for combined group of (0.20%).
On the other hand, decrease observed in the prices of sugar (6.28%), eggs (3.80%), pulse Moong (3.03%), onions (1.61%), chicken (1.47%), pulse gram (0.94%), bananas (0.93%), wheat flour bag (0.91%), pulse Masoor (0.58%) and pulse Mash (0.56%).
According to the PBS data, the year on year trend depicts increase of 12.66%, LPG (64.60%), electricity for Q1 (61.11%), mustard oil (43.82%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (41.55%), vegetable ghee 2.5-kg (39.94%), cooking oil 5 liter (38.70%), chillies powdered (33.43%), gents sandal (33.37%), chicken (30.08%), washing soap (26.61%), garlic (22.78%), petrol (22.22%) and diesel (17.13%), while major decrease observed in the prices of tomatoes (50.11%), pulse Moong (32.01%), onions (31.17%), potatoes (22.30%) and pulse Mash (1.73%).
The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI across all quantiles ranged between 0.15 percent and 0.24 percent. The lowest income group witnessed a weekly increase of 0.15 percent while the highest income group recorded an increase of 0.24 percent. On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 11.28 percent and 14.12 percent. Yearly SPI for the lowest income group increased by 14.12 percent while the highest income group recorded an increase of 12.77 percent.
