July 13, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1423

ISLAMABAD, July 12: Inflation represented by Consumer Price Index (CPI) spiralled by another 4.90 per cent during the financial year 2001-02 as compared to previous year.

The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), which released the price data relating to the financial year 2001-02 also calculated CPI on the basis of average the period of three years and three months. According to this formula, an increase of 3.54 per cent was recorded during the financial year 2001-02.

Using 2000-01 as the new base of CPI, the FBS stated that the CPI index stood at 104.90 at the end of 2001-02.

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), also based on averages drawn from the data for three years and three months, increased by 3.37 per cent over the previous year. Based on month by month progression, the SPI, that too is based on the year 2000-01, went up by 4.31 per cent. Thus SPI index stood at 104.31 at the end of the year as per the averaging of impact of price fluctuations on four income groups.

WPI, which continues to use the 1990-91 as base, increased by 2.13 per cent. The increases in CPI and SPI under old base were of 2.75 per cent and 2.68 per cent, respectively, during the year under review.

During the month of June, 2002, CPI spiralled by 4.43 per cent over the corresponding month of previous year. When compared with the previous month (May, 2002), the rise in CPI for the month under review was of 0.48 per cent.

The upward movement was even more pronounced in respect of SPI in June: 4.45 per cent compared to June 2001 and 1.37 per cent compared to previous month. Under the old base, CPI, SPI and WPI soared by 0.25 per cent, 0.89 per cent and 1.07 per cent, respectively, in June as compared to May, 2002. When compared to June 2001, they went up by 3.17 per cent, 3.48 per cent and 2.44 per cent, respectively.

According to group-wise analysis of CPI, Medicare eclipsed all other categories of consumer goods by an increase of 1.26 per cent. This massive spurt was triggered mainly by the imposition of general sales tax on most of the medicines including life-saving ones like the Aspirin, Medicare became dearer by 6.01 per cent within the month under review.

Not far behind Medicare was the group, “Fuel & Lighting”. This group became dearer by 0.97 per cent, thanks to frequent resort to upward revision of energy prices in a situation where both the government and the oil distribution companies have been taking turns increasing the cost of petroleum fuel.

Other categories which became dearer for the hapless consumer in June 2002 as compared to May 2002 were:

Food, beverages & tobacco: 0.73 per cent; Apparel, textile & footwear: 0.12 per cent; House rent: 0.04 per cent; Fuel & lighting: 0.97 per cent; Household, furniture & equipment etc.: 0.15 per cent; Recreation & entertainment: 0.05 per cent; Education: 0.49 per cent; and Cleaning, laundry & personal appearance: 0.82 per cent.

There was, however, an exception to the general trend of price spiral. It was in respect of Transport & communication. In this case, the CPI moved down slightly by 0.19 per cent.

The main commodities that became dearer during June as against previous month were:

Eggs (17.44 per cent), farm chicken (16.92 per cent), potatoes (11.83 per cent), vegetable ghee (4.20 per cent), mustard oil (3.59 per cent), wheat flour (2.05 per cent), fish (1.30 per cent), wheat (1.27 per cent), betel leaves & nuts (1.12 per cent), electricity (1.36 per cent), kerosene oil (1.40 per cent), train fare (7.61 per cent), diesel (1.55 per cent), toilet soap (4.08 per cent) and drugs and medicines (2.35 per cent).

Prices of following main commodities decreased principally for seasonable reasons:

Onions (-13.98 per cent), fresh fruits (-0.73 per cent), petrol (-0.73 per cent) and vehicles (-0.50 per cent).

The main features in relation to WPI included: * Increase in rates of food (1.48 per cent), raw materials (2.03 per cent), fuel, lighting & lubricates (1.06 per cent) and manufactures (0.06 per cent); and * Decrease in princes of building materials by 0.08 per cent.