ISLAMABAD: Amid protests over inflated bills, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) claimed that Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ended August 1, 2024, decreased by 0.12 per cent, mainly due to a decrease in the prices of electricity charges for Q1 (15.80 per cent), bananas (4.87 per cent), diesel (3.81 per cent), petrol (2.23 per cent), wheat flour (0.98 per cent) and sugar (0.21 per cent).
Business Recorder sent a question to PBS Chief Statistician Dr Naeem uz Zafar, however, till the filing of this report, no response was received.
The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 18.41 per cent mainly due to increase in the prices of gas charges for q1 (570 per cent), onions (86.53 per cent), pulse gram (41.78 per cent), powered milk (32.32 per cent), moong (30.21 per cent), garlic (27.88 per cent), shirting (25.09 per cent), gents sandal (25.01 per cent), salt powder (23.28 per cent), beef (23.13 per cent), pulse mash (21.22 per cent) and energy saver (17.96 per cent), while major decrease is observed in the prices of wheat flour (32.28 per cent), electricity charges for q1 (15.46 per cent), cooking oil 5 litre (13.44 per cent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (9.99 per cent), vegetable ghee 1kg (9.21 per cent), eggs (7.90 per cent), chili powder (7.04 per cent), mustard oil (6.80 per cent), rice basmati broken (5.68 per cent), petrol(1.20 per cent) and diesel (0.16 per cent).
Weekly SPI inflation up 0.17pc
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 24 (47.06 per cent) items increased, seven (13.72 per cent) items decreased and 20 (39.22 per cent) items remained stable.
The SPI for the week under review was recorded at 321.56 points against 321.95 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data released on Friday.
The SPI for the consumption group up to Rs17,732, Rs17,732-Rs22,888 and Rs22,889-Rs29,517 decreased by 0.90 percent, 1.36 per cent and 0.17 per cent respectively while it increased for consumption group—Rs29,518-Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 by 0.23 per cent and 0.80 per cent respectively.
The items, prices of which, increased during the period under review include chicken (5.91 per cent), eggs (1.58 per cent), cooked daal (1.05 per cent), pulse gram (0.78 per cent), cooked beef (0.53 percent), rice basmati broken (0.44 per cent), garlic (0.43 per cent), onions (0.40 percent), rice irri-6/9 (0.39 per cent), curd (0.32 per cent), moong (0.30 per cent), potatoes (0.26 per cent), maash (0.20 per cent), vegetable ghee Dalda/Habib or other superior quality (0.20 per cent), milk fresh (0.17 per cent), mutton (0.14 per cent), gur (0.11 per cent), tomatoes (0.11 per cent), vegetable ghee Dalda/Habib (0.11 per cent), shirting (0.09 per cent), LPG (0.06 per cent), masoor (0.06 per cent), powdered milk Nido 390 gm polybag each (0.03 per cent) and beef with bone (0.03 per cent).
Items prices of which decreased during the period under review include electricity charges for q1 (15.80 per cent), bananas (4.87 per cent), hi-speed diesel (3.81 per cent), petrol super (2.23 per cent), wheat flour bag 20kg (0.98 per cent) and sugar (0.21 per cent), cigarettes Capstan (0.21 per cent).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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