The ongoing surge in prices of essential commodities particularly Rs 5 increase in per kg flour, has forced the government not to release weekly Sensitive Price Indictor (SPI), used for measuring change in prices of goods on weekly basis, it was learnt.
It was learnt that the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) secretary has withheld SPI, bulletin which is released every week to show trend in the prices of 53 essential commodities, most of them food items, collected from 17 urban centres across the country.
The decision whether to release SPI will be taken after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (today) wherein the FBS will brief about the prices of essential commodities. Sources said the SPI data, which was due on last Friday, is unlikely to be released due to prevailing flour crisis which pushed per kg flour price beyond Rs 24 from Rs 19 on December 27 in many areas.
Another official, when contacted, said the SPI could not be released due to difference in prices sent by the provincial bureaus of statistics and collected by Islamabad office. "This has made difficult for us to give the exact prices of different commodities", he said avoiding answering whether the SPI was withheld due to surge in prices of essential commodities.
The SPI bulletin, based on data collected from 17 urban cities across the country on 53 essential items, every week, shows trend in prices of essential commodities, including food and non-food items. The SPI-based inflation was recorded 13.44 percent for low-income group on week ending December 27 against the same period last year with a 10.79 percent surge in combined SPI.
It showed that list of items whose prices have been on the rise during the period under review was widened to 25 exposing vulnerability of the low-income group. The low-income group of Rs 3,000 has been experiencing 13.44 percent dearness during the week with price of per kg average flour touching Rs 19.01.
The volatility in the prices of essential commodities was not only making life harder for the low-income group with every passing day, but the current crisis of flour triggered widespread protests in different parts of the country.
The price of per kg chicken had increased by 10.73 percent on week ending December 27, LPG 11-kg cylinder 5.90 percent, bread plain medium size 4.12 percent, per kg wheat average quality 3.13 percent. The per kg chicken price surged to Rs 79.87 during the week from Rs 72.13 and LPG cylinder Rs 792.56 from Rs 748.41 and the prices of only six items had decreased.
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