Weekly inflation inches upwards

ISLAMABAD: Weekly inflation rose for the seventh consecutive week, with the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for combined income group witnessing an increase of 1.03 per cent for the week ending on June 27 as compared to the previous week.

Significant variations have been witnessed in prices of non-perishable and perishable products, such as pulses, beef, vegetable among other products, suggested data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

SPI monitors prices of 53 items based on the survey of 17 cities and 53 markets.

The impact of prices on various income groups also witnessed variations during the week under review.

For the lowest income group earning up to Rs8,000, the SPI witnessed an increase of 1.08pc over the previous week, while the inflation for the top income group (Rs35,000 and above) was up by 0.95pc.

However, as compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 5.66pc.

The food items, which registered substantial increase in their prices, were tomatoes, 40.18pc; chicken, 8.31pc; egg, 3.01pc; moong pulse washed, 1.84pc; masoor pulse washed, 1.65pc; wheat flour, 1.31pc; rice irri-6, 1.08pc; wheat, 0.93pc; mash pulse washed, 0.45pc; beef, 0.36pc; bananas, 0.25pc; milk fresh, 0.22pc; veg ghee loose, 0.14pc; gur, 0.12pc; mutton, 0.07pc; sugar, 0.07pc; and red chillies powder loose, 0.07pc.

The non-food items whose prices increased include cigarettes, 2.34pc; gas charges up to 100 M3, 0.86pc; and bath soap, 0.52pc.

The items whose prices declined are gram pulse washed, diesel, LPG 11 kg cylinder, petrol, onions, kerosene and garlic.