ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended September 17, 2020, recorded an increase of 0.71 percent, over the last week, due to rise in prices of food items i.e. tomatoes (27.71 percent), eggs (5.69 percent), chicken (4.94 percent), and non-food items i.e. energy saver (2.49 percent).

According to the latest data, released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the SPI went up from 136.62 points during the week ended September 10, 2020 to 137.59 points, during the week under review.

The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 8.72 percent with most of the items increased mainly tomatoes (87.94 percent), chilies powder (86.31 percent), potatoes (69.71 percent), moong (41.71 percent), eggs (39.57 percent), mash (35.92 percent), sugar (26.66 percent, masoor (24.53 percent), bread (18.80 percent), match box (18.03 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (17.58 percent), gur (17.50 percent), wheat flour bag (16.41 percent), washing soap (15.86 percent), rice IRRI 6/9 (15.77 percent), long cloth (15.45 percent), and vegetable ghee 2.5kg (15.31 percent).

While a major decrease was observed in the price of onions (32.79 percent), chicken (23.75 percent, diesel (16.10 percent), garlic (12.33 percent), petrol (8.11 percent), and LPG (5.99 percent).

The weekly SPI covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98 percent) items increased, three (5.88 percent) items decreased, and 22 (43.14 percent) items remained constant, according to the provisional figures released by the PBS.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020