ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended January 14, 2021 recorded a decrease of 0.22 percent over last week due to fall in food items prices including eggs (15.62 percent), tomatoes (11.18 percent), potatoes (4.99 percent), onions (4.06 percent), chicken (2.79 percent) and some non-food items including electricity for Q1 (0.49 percent) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) (0.28 percent), said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

According to the PBS, the reduction in the prices of the above mentioned items has a joint impact of -0.74 into the overall SPI for combined group of which witnessed a reduction of 0.22 percent.

According to the latest data, released by the PBS, the SPI went down from 140.01 points during the week ended January 7, 2021 to 139.70 points during the week under review.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 23 (46.10 percent) items increased, seven (13.72 percent) items decreased, and 21 (41.18 percent) items remained unchanged.

The PBS data further stated that the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 5.77 percent with most of the items increased mainly chilies powder (103.81 percent), eggs (26.65 percent), sugar (25.12 percent), match box (24.22 percent), mustard oil (21.49 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (18.85 percent), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (17.92 percent), long cloth (16.07 percent), shirting (15.71 percent), Sufi washing soap (15.38 percent), rice Irri 6/9 (14.77 percent), bread plain (14.47 percent), cooking oil 5 liter (13.53 percent) and curd (13.05 percent).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021