Islamabad
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on August 22, 2019 for the combined income group decreased by 0.08% as compared to the previous week. The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 271.83 points against 272.05 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday. The weekly SPI has been computed with base 2007-08=100, covering 17 urban centers and 53 essential items for all income groups and combined. Meanwhile, the Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest income group witnessed about 0.04 percent increase and went up from 250.43 points in last week to 250.54 points during the week under review. As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 18.91 percent, while, for the lowest income group, it increased by 15.63 percent. Meanwhile, the SPI for the income groups from Rs 8001-12,000, Rs12,001-18,000; 8,001-35,000 and above Rs35000 per month decreased by 0.02 percent, 0.06 percent,0.10 percent and 0.12 percent respectively. During the week under review, average prices of 07 item registered decrease, while that of 24 items prices increased with the remaining 22 items’ prices unchanged. The prices of the commodities that recorded decreasing trend during the week under review included tomatoes, chicken farm (live), garlic, LPG cylinder, potatoes, pulse masoor (washed) and pulse moong (washed). The items, which recorded increase in their average prices included onions, washing soap, bread plain, vegetable ghee (loose), bath soap, gur, sugar, pulse gram, eggs hen, wheat, pulse mash, cooking oil, red chillies, mutton, vegetable ghee (tin), wheat flour, mustard oil, rice basmati, bananas, curd, fire wood, kerosene oil, milk fresh and beef with bones.—APP
