07 March 2004	Sunday	15 Muharram 1425

ISLAMABAD, March 6: Sensitive Price Indicator spiralled by 0.79 per cent during the week ending March 4, as compared to the previous week, consequent upon further increase in petroleum fuels and foodstuffs.

According to the weekly price review released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday, the SPI index, with 2000-01 as the base year, moved up to 114.11, denoting an increase of 5.97 per cent, over the corresponding period of previous year.

But disaggregated on the basis of economic groups, the SPI index shows an increase over the past one year of 8.04pc for households with incomes up to Rs3,000 per month, of 7.56pc for those in the income range Rs3,001-5,000, and of 6.81pc for those in the income range Rs5,001-12,000.

As regards the households with income above Rs12,000, SPI had the least impact, as evidenced by an increase of only 4.99pc.

Commodity-wise analysis points to the spiralling cost of foodstuffs in respect of which, SPI went up by 1.09pc during the week under review. The non-food group registered an increase of 0.22pc and the transport and communication group by 0.79pc.

The number of items that became dearer during the period under review was 20, as compared to the previous week.

Notwithstanding, the claims by the ministry of food and agriculture that there is no shortage of the people's staple food, the price of wheat and wheat flour remained on the ascendant.

Thus although the average rate of wheat flour (average quality) moved up by 2.08pc to Rs12.74 per kg, in fact it ranged from Rs10.75 per kg (Islamabad) to Rs16 per kg (Karachi). The average rate of wheat went up by 0.69pc.

Likewise, the price spiral of beef and mutton showed no let up. The rates peaked at Rs110 per kg (Karachi) for the former and Rs200 per kg for the latter, increasing on average by 1.20pc and 1.75pc over the previous week, respectively.

The prices of remaining 16 items went up as follows:

Tomatoes (25pc), egg (farm) (5.89pc), curd (1.64pc), chicken farm (1.35pc), milk fresh (1.30pc), bananas and kerosene oil (0.98pc each), petrol (0.92pc), masoor pulse washed (0.82pc), potatoes (0.67pc), shirting (0.54pc), vegetable ghee loose (0.52pc), cooked beef (plate) (0.47pc), rice Irri-6 (0.46pc), mash pulse washed (0.28pc) and firewood (0.15pc).

The eight items, prices of which decreased during the period under review as compared to the previous week, were as follows: Onions (-7.41pc), gur (-1.02pc), sugar (-0.84pc), LPG (11 kg cylinder) (-0.67pc), moong pulse washed (-0.55pc), garlic (-0.50pc), gram pulse washed (-0.39pc), red chilies (powdered) (-0.21pc).

CEMENT: The rate of cement, according to the FBS data about eight cities of Pakistan, increased at the average rate of 0.07pc during the period under review over the previous week.

Significantly, however, the situation eased somewhat as evidenced by the decline in maximum price from Rs235 to Rs232.50 per 50 kg bag (Rawalpindi in Islamabad). In Quetta and Lahore, it was Rs230, in Peshawar Rs226, in Multan Rs225, in Karachi Rs217 and in Hyderabad it was Rs215.

FERTILIZERS: The fertilizers that declined in price during the period under review relatively to previous week included: Urea Sona (-0.06pc), S.SP. Phosphate (PD)(-0.22pc) and T.SP. Phosphate (GR) (-1.31pc).

But the period under review also saw increase in prices of six other fertilizers as follows: Urea Kisan (0.05pc), Ammonium Sulphate (0.26pc), Dia Ammonium Phosphate (0.09pc), Nitro Phosphate (0.16pc), S.SP. Phosphate (GR) (1.49pc) and C. Ammonium Nitrate (0.84pc).