The SPI (Sensitive Price Indicator) during the week ending on September 9, 2004, has come down slightly for all categories of income groups, namely 0.10 percent as compared to the previous week ending on September 2. In the case of year on year SPI, there was decrease from 12.74 (September 11, 2003) to 12.35 during the week under review.
The slight decrease followed rise in prices of 16 essential items, fall in seven items and no change in the case of 30 items. SPI covers 53 essential items whose prices are collected from 17 urban centres.
The total weight of the 16 items, which registered increase, is over 30 percent. The items showing decrease have a weight of 6.6 percent, and the items which remained unchanged have a weight of over 62 percent in the SPI data.
Nonetheless, the year-on-year increases registered in certain daily items continue to hurt the budget of low income households. As compared to corresponding figure of last year, the wheat is dearer by 24 percent; mutton by 31 percent; beef 32 percent; Irri rice 20
percent; tomatoes 106 percent; onions 81 percent; potatoes 55 percent; egg 22 percent; wheat flour 21 percent; milk and curd by 11 percent; kerosene, petrol and diesel between 14 and 16 percent; and LPG cylinder, a new item for some weeks, is over 33 percent.