The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation increased 0.08 percent while it went 20.08 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 for the week ended on January 06, 2022 for the lowest income group witnessed a 0.28 percent decrease, while it went 21.38 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same income group.
On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that SPI increased across all quantiles ranging between 18.07 percent and 21.38 percent. Yearly inflation for the group having monthly income from Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 increased by 18.07 percent while the highest income group (above Rs44,175 per month) recorded an increase of 20.08 percent.
According to the PBS, the combined index was at 168.12 on January 6, 2022 as compared to 167.98 on December 30, 2021 while the index was recorded at 140.01 a year ago on January 7, 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 25 (49.02%) items increased, prices of 07 (13.72%) items decreased, and prices of 19 (37.25%) items remained stable.The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of food items including potatoes (5.23%), chicken (4.45%), bananas (2.56%), onions (2.12%), pulse Masoor (1.55%), pulse gram (1.46%), and pulse Mash (1.44%). Similarly, in non-food items, an increase was observed in the prices of diesel and salt (2.75% each), petrol (2.68%), and match box (1.45%), with a joint impact of (0.43%) into the overall SPI for the combined group of 0.08 percent. On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of tomatoes (18.28%), chillies powdered (14.54%), eggs (2.23%), LPG (0.96%), rice Irri (0.17%), wheat flour (0.06%) and mustard oil (0.05%).
