Combined income groups: SPI inflation up 0.05 percent WoW

The weekly SPI inflation during the week ended March 19 against March 12 witnessed an increase of 0.05 percent for combined income groups, ie, from 129.66 points to 129.72 points, Pakistan Bureau of Statistic (PBS) revealed.
According to the PBS's Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) data released Friday, the SPI on Year-on-Year (YoY) basis during (March 21, 2019 to March 19, 2020) witnessed an increase of 12.85 percent, from 114.95 points to 129.72 points.
According to the PBS data, the weekly inflation for all the income groups during the week under review witnessed an increase.
The SPI for the monthly income group up to Rs 17,732, soared up by 0.07 percent, from 133.60 points to 133.69 points on WoW basis, and on YoY basis, it recorded an increase of 12.19 percent, from 119.16 points to 133.69 points.
For the income group with monthly income of Rs 17,732-22,888, weekly inflation registered an increase of 0.05 percent, from 128.58 points to 128.64 points, while on annual basis, it witnessed an increase of 11.56 percent, from 115.31 points to 128.64 points.
For the monthly income group of Rs 22,889-29,517, the SPI went up by 0.05 percent, from 131.05 points to 131.11 points, while on annual basis, it went up by 15.50 percent, from 113.52 points to 131.11 points.
Weekly inflation for the income group with monthly income of Rs 29,518-44,175 went up by 0.04 percent, from 128.41 points to 128.46 points, while on annual basis, the SPI for the above income group went up by 15.35 percent, from 111.37 points to 128.46 points.
For the income group of Rs 44,175 or above monthly income groups, weekly inflation registered an increase of 0.05 percent, from 131.60 points to 131.67 points, and on annual basis, the SPI for the above income group went up by 12.61 percent, from 116.93 points to 131.67 points.
The increase in SPI inflation is mainly attributed to the escalating prices of following food items and non-food items: tomatoes 20.61 percent, chilies powder 3.27 percent, sugar two percent, wheat flour 0.065 percent, gur 1.18 percent, and among non-food items, Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) 3.71 percent.
During the week under review, prices of the following items witnessed a decrease: onions 8.27 percent, chicken 7.95 percent, garlic 7.11 percent, bananas 3.59 percent, mustard oil 1.10 percent, potatoes 0.93 percent, pulse gram 0.49 percent, rice basmati broken 0.46 percent pulse moong 0.46 percent, and pulse mash 0.34 percent.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 14 items witnessed an increase, which is 27.45 percent of the basket, prices of 10 items, which is 19.61 percent of the basket witnessed a reduction, and 27 items, which is 52.94 percent of the basket, remained unchanged.
The YoY trend depicts an increase of 12.85 percent with most of the items increased mainly potatoes 127.65 percent, onions 93.78 percent, garlic 87.51 percent, pulse moong 67.40 percent, pulse mash 48.52 percent, cigarettes 36.81 percent, vegetable ghee 1kg pack 35.94 percent, sugar 32.93 percent, vegetable ghee 2.5-kg 32.15 percent, gur 31.39 percent, cooking oil 5kg 27.17 percent, LPG 24.05 percent, long cloth 20.90 percent, petrol 19.98 percent, pulse gram 19.07 percent, cooked beef 18.54 percent, shirting 17.90 percent, pulse masoor 16.94 percent, tea prepared 15.86 percent, and powdered milk 15.31 percent.
While a major decrease was observed in the price of tomatoes 54.91 percent, electricity 13.15 percent, and chicken (9.40 percent).