The latest data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reveals a striking increase of over 43% in the Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ending December 14, 2023, compared to the same period last year.
However, there was a marginal decrease of 0.06% in the SPI for the current week, attributed to declines in the prices of potatoes (12.18%), tomatoes (5.18%), and chicken (1.19%).
Read More: October Witnesses a 4% Contraction in Large-Scale Manufacturing Output
Year-on-year trends illustrate a significant surge of 43.16%, primarily due to escalated prices in gas charges (1108.59%), cigarettes (93.22%), chili powder (81.74%), wheat flour (81.40%), garlic (71.17%), rice (both basmati broken and irri-6/9), sugar, gur, and pulse mash. Meanwhile, certain items experienced price decreases, including onions (25.11%), mustard oil (4.40%), 1 kg vegetable ghee, bananas, and 2.5 kg vegetable ghee.
Among 51 items reviewed, prices of 19 items increased (37.26%), 10 items decreased (19.60%), while 22 items remained stable (43.14%).
Read More: Petroleum Products’ Production Records 8% Surge in Initial Four Months of FY24
Items that experienced price hikes during this period include sugar (6.02%), pulse gram (2.57%), eggs (2.33%), rice irri-6/9 (1.54%), pulse moong (1.23%), onions, cooked beef, pulse masoor, cooked daal, salt powdered, prepared tea, and pulse mash.
Conversely, items witnessing price declines during this review period encompassed potatoes, tomatoes, chicken, rice basmati broken, mustard oil, garlic, and bananas.
