May 7, 2002	Tuesday	Safar 23, 1423

ISLAMABAD, May 6: Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) during the week ending May 2, 2002, declined by 0.19 per cent to 103.96 as compared to the previous week, according to the data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Monday.

Based on analysis of prices of 51 items collected from 17 cities, SPI registered an increase of 3.76 per cent when compared with the corresponding week of previous year. This was attributed to decrease in average prices of 13 essential items as against the previous week for reasons mainly connected with the seasonal variation in availability of vegetables etc. These included:

Wheat (-15 per cent), wheat flour (-1.68 per cent), rice basmati av. Quality (-0.18 per cent), moong pulse washed (-0.71 per cent), mash pulse washed (-0.65 per cent), gram pulse washed (-0.12. per cent), mutton (-0.08 per cent), egg (-0.1.94 per cent), gur (-0.29 per cent), mustard oil (-0.21 per cent), onions (-3.34 per cent), tomatoes (-4.61 per cent), garlic (-2.67 per cent).

The reduction in prices offset the increase in prices of 9 items over the previous week as follows: Masoor pulse washed (0.05 per cent), veg. ghee tin (0.27 per cent), veg. ghee loose (0.12 per cent), cooking oil (Habib) (0.20 per cent), potatoes (5.30 per cent), bananas (2.19 per cent), red chilies powdered (0.73 per cent), lawn (0.15 per cent), and chicken farm (4.05 per cent).