ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) recorded a further increase of 0.14 per cent during the week ended Jan 16, 2003, as compared to previous week.

The week was marked by 17 out of 51 essential items in SPI basket becoming dearer. This resulted in the rise of SPI for the lower income people with incomes up to Rs3,000 per month, as per the data collected by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) in 17 towns of the country.

The impact on middle income households (Rs3,001-Rs5,000) as well as highest income households (Rs12,000 and above) is reflected in the increase of 0.13 per cent each.

In respect of households in the income bracket Rs5,001-Rs12,000, the SPI moved up by 0.11 per cent over the previous week.

When compared to corresponding period of previous year, the SPI spiralled by 4.20 per cent to 107.40. For the lowest income group, the SPI stood at 106.83.

The major cause of spurt in SPI was an increase of 2.59 per cent and 0.46 per cent in the prices of diesel and petrol, respectively, during the week under review. As a result, their prices reached to Rs21.81 and Rs32.79 per litre. The prices of other 15 essential items went up as follows:

Tomatoes (11.13%), garlic (1.49%), cooked dal (plate) (0.69%), tea prepared (0.67%), wheat flour average quality and electricity bulb (0.48% each), voile printed (0.45%), moong pulse washed (0.37%), wheat (0.33%), firewood (0.29%), vegetable ghee (loose) (0.27%), beef (0.25%), masoor pulse washed (0.17%), bananas (0.16%) and mutton (0.12%).

The price situation was relieved somewhat by decrease in prices of 12 items, mainly due to seasonable factors, as compared to previous week, as follows:

Chicken farm (1.63%), gram pulse washed (1.62%), potatoes (1.31%), onions (1.29%), LPG 11-kg cylinder (0.97%), red chilies powdered (0.80%), egg farm (0.71%), gur (0.55%), rice irri-6 (0.49%), mustard oil (0.18%), mustard oil (0.18%), sugar (0.15%) and mash pulse washed (0.08%).

The price of cement decreased further by 2.56 per cent from the previous week. Significantly, Quetta too became a beneficiary of the declining trend as its price dropped to Rs188.33 per bag. The dramatic fall is highlighted by the fact that for the past several weeks, Quetta was the only city where cement was selling for Rs230 per bag. The lowest cement price was Rs180 in Hyderabad. In Peshawar, it, however, increased by Rs10 to Rs190.33.