The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation decreased for the third consecutive week by 0.11 percent while it went 18.62 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the SPI-based weekly inflation registered another decrease for the week ended on January 27, 2022, after registering a decline of 0.06 percent and 0.43 percent in the preceding weeks.
The weekly inflation for the lowest income group witnessed a decrease of 0.07 percent, while it went 20.24 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. However, for other income groups (Q2-Q5), it went down from 0.05 percent to 0.12 percent for the week ended on January 27, 2022, and increased from 16.62 percent to 18.85 on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same groups. According to the PBS, the combined index was at 167.11 on January 27, 2022 as compared to 167.29 on January 20, 2021 while the index was recorded at 140.88 a year ago on January 28, 2021. 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 17 (33.33pc) items increased, prices of 08 (15.69pc) items decreased, and prices of 26 (50.98pc) items remained stable. The SPI for the current week recorded a decrease in the prices of food items including chillies powdered (9.05%), potatoes (4.03%), onions (2.86%), eggs (2.19%), chicken (1.71%), sugar (1.14%), and bananas (0.61%); and non-food item LPG (2.04%), with a joint impact of (-0.47%) into the overall SPI for combined group of (-0.11%).
