A meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee has reviewed the prices and supply trend of essential food items and expressed satisfaction over decrease in weekly inflation. The meeting presided over by the Secretary Finance, Dr Waqar Masood and attended by representatives of provinces, and relevant ministries noted that SPI, which monitors the prices of 53 items based on the survey of 17 cities and 53 markets are experiencing a downward trend during the last four consecutive weeks.
According to a statement, the SPI of the week ended on December 8, 2011 after a decline on 0.14 % over previous combined inflation decreased to 5.24 % over corresponding week of previous year. The prices of sugar witnessed a decrease of 5.36 %, onion 5.24%, chicken farm 2.03%, garlic 1.30%, rice irri-6 1.07%, rice basmati broken 0.23% red chillies 0.27% was noted.
It was also observed that there are significant differences in prices of vegetables such as potatoes, tomatoes, onions and garlic among the provinces. Such as prices of tomatoes in Punjab is Rs 50 per kg, KPK Rs 24-48 per kg, Sindh Rs 60 per kg, Balochistan Rs 60-65 per kg. The price of potatoes in Punjab is Rs 34 per kg, KPK Rs 20-30 per kg, Sindh Rs 15 per kg, Balochistan Rs 20-23 per kg. Onion in Punjab is Rs 41 per kg, KPK Rs 44 per kg, Sindh and Balochistan Rs 30 per kg. Garlic in Punjab is Rs 104 per kg, KPK Rs 100-120 per kg, Sindh Rs 80 per kg and Balochistan Rs 1 10-120 per kg.
The meeting also compared regional prices which suggested that in Pakistan the prices of gram pulse, sugar, beef, chicken farm are lower than India, Bangladesh, Colombo, Kabul; while prices of wheat flour, rice, mutton, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, red chillies and tea are higher. The committee also observed declining trend of international food prices and noted that during July - November, 2011 the prices of sugar, wheat, tea, palm oil, soybean oil have declined by 14.9, 8.5, 10.6, 3.2 and 9 %, respectively which may bring some respite in domestic prices.
The chairman advised the concerned authorities to keep record of imports of essential food items and monitor their demand and supply to address any shock in the market prices. He also instructed the provincial governments and other stakeholders to strengthen the institutional arrangements in collaboration with their Statistical Departments in price monitoring.