August 4, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24,1423

ISLAMABAD, Aug 3: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) during the week ending August 1 declined by 0.7 per cent from the peak of 107.05 in the preceding week.

The reduction in SPI, according to the weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday, was the highest for the lowest income group (up to Rs3,000) and those at the upper rung (monthly incomes from Rs3,001 to Rs5,000). It is their purchasing capacity that had been battered mercilessly over the past three months by price spiral. In their case, the SPI slowed by 0.11 per cent.

The households with monthly incomes between Rs5,001 and Rs12,000 benefited from the trend to the extent of 0.10 per cent. Also among the beneficiaries were households with incomes above Rs12,000 for whom the SPI declined by 0.2 per cent.

Out of the 51 items included in SPI to measure the impact of prices on different income strata, the prices of 29 items remained unchanged during the week under review.

The number of items whose prices decreased was the same as those of which became dearer as compared to the preceding week.

The price behaviour is illustrated by the farm chicken whose prices touched the sky uncharacteristically during the summer season when the consumption goes down considerably.. Having reached the zenith at Rs59.38 per kg in the previous week, its price moved down slightly to Rs58.93 per kg, as reported by the FBS. In the case of farm eggs, however, the prices continue to surge.

The items whose prices registered some decline as compared to the preceding week were: Tomatoes (6.51%), potatoes (5.09%), bananas (2.47%), chicken farm (0.76%), moong pulse washed (0.71%), sugar (0.63%), masoor pulse washed (0.53%), mash pulse washed (0.20%), mustard oil (0.15%), red chilies powdered (0.14%) and gram pulse washed (0.09%).

The 11 items whose prices went up in comparison with the previous week included: Onions (3.30%), garlic (1.94%), egg (farm) (1.86%), kerosene (1/40%), petrol (0.77%), gur (0.71%), veg. ghee (tin) (0.40%), cooking oil (tin) (0.31%), rice basmati broken (0.29%), veg. ghee (loose) (0.19%) and wheat (0.12%).