Weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ending on September 29 increased to 30.62 per cent year-on-year, mainly because of a drastic rise in the prices of essential food items, including tomatoes and onions, and fuel. However, the inflation figure was far below the record high of 45.5pc measured for the week that ended on September 1. Last week, inflation was measured at 29.28pc.
Data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed that inflation increased 0.94pc week-on-week. The SPI monitors the prices of 51 essential items based on a survey of 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the week, the prices of 20 items increased, those of 10 items decreased while 21 items remained unchanged. Highest YoY rise: Tomatoes: 224.2pc; Onions: 139.03pc; Diesel: 105.12pc; Petrol: 91.87pc; Pulse Gram: 74.56pc. Highest WoW rise: Onions: 47.77pc; Tomatoes: 30.29pc; Lipton Tea: 2.50pc; Bread: 1.74pc; Washing Soap: 1.13pc; Highest WoW decline; LPG: 4.14pc; Flour: 2.99pc; Pulse Masoor: 1.59pc; Bananas: 1.5pc; Cooking oil 5 litres: 1.12pc.
In its Monthly Economic Update and Outlook for September, the finance ministry said Pakistan was facing a severe economic and humanitarian crisis due to the devastating floods this year. It noted that food inflation was not only a domestic issue as prices had risen internationally. It added, however, that the floods had exacerbated the domestic situation. “Pakistan’s external environment faces rising challenges. Recent floods brought on by extremely strong monsoon rains have negatively impacted crops, altering the economic outlook mostly through agriculture performance.”
The government was alleviating the effects of the rupee’s depreciation and agricultural destruction by prompt measures, including countering price speculation and providing sufficient supplies by allowing trade from neighbouring countries, it said. “Still, the risk of second-round effects of recent inflationary shocks persists which may work themselves through the markets. It can also be observed that in recent years, the month of August shows a positive seasonality in the MoM (month-on-month) inflation rate. All in all, September may show a halt to the recent drastic accelerations of the YoY inflation rate,” it added.
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