ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended May 12, 2022 recorded an increase of 0.49 per cent mainly due to an increase in prices of food items, including wheat flour (41.78 per cent), chicken (12.13 per cent), potatoes (7.04 per cent), eggs (5.08 per cent), dal masoor (4.79 per cent), onions (4.74 per cent) non-food items cigarettes (2.62 per cent), and matchbox (1.31 per cent), says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 15.85 per cent, onions (160.81 per cent), tomatoes (122.92 per cent), LPG (97.34 per cent), garlic (83.51 per cent), cooking oil 5 litre (59.78 per cent), vegetable ghee 2.5 Kg (59.46 per cent), vegetable ghee 1 Kg (58.43 per cent), mustard oil (58.27 per cent), pulse masoor (52.01 per cent), washing soap (39.79 per cent), petrol (37.42 per cent) and diesel (29.63 per cent), while major decrease was observed in the prices of chillies powdered (39.50 per cent), pulse moong (25.81 per cent), potatoes (20.71 per cent), electricity charges for Q1 (14.56 per cent), bananas (14.24 per cent) and sugar (11.80 per cent).
According to the latest data, the SPI went up from 171.78 per cent during the week ended May 5, 2022 to 172.63 per cent during the week under review. The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs17,732 and Rs17,733 to Rs22,888, Rs22,889 to Rs29,517 and Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and for above Rs44,175 increased by 0.94 per cent, 0.58 per cent, 1.01 per cent, 1.12 per cent and 0.41 per cent, respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 28 (54.90 per cent) items increased, 06 (11.77 per cent) items decreased and 17 (33.33 per cent) items remained stable, says the PBS.
The items the prices of which increased included wheat flour (41.78 per cent), chicken (12.13 per cent), potatoes (7.04 per cent), eggs (5.08 per cent), masoor (4.79 per cent), onions (4.74 per cent), cigarettes Capstan (2.62 per cent), pulse gram (2.29 per cent), maash (2.05 per cent), mustard oil (1.97 per cent), mutton (1.64 per cent), matchbox (1.31 per cent), tea prepared (1.16 per cent), pulse moong (0.97 per cent), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.88 per cent), rice basmati Broken (0.65 per cent), cooked beef (0.57 per cent), beef with bone (0.56 per cent), powdered milk NIDO (0.23 per cent) and cooking oil DALDA or other similar brand (SN), 5 litre tin each (0.05 per cent).
The items which registered a decrease in prices include tomatoes (12.01 per cent), electricity charge (10.66 per cent), bananas (5.87 per cent), firewood whole (0.43 per cent), sugar (0.15 per cent) and LPG (0.11 per cent).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022