28 March 2004	Sunday	06 Safar 1425

ISLAMABAD, March 27: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) went down 0.16 per cent during the week ending March 25, mainly due to the decline for the first time in a whole year in the price of wheat flour as compared to previous week.

But, as reported by the Federal Bureau of Statistics in its weekly press review issued here on Saturday, the rate of wheat flour (up to Rs14.50 kg at Karachi and other places) was still higher by 21.18 per cent than that in the corresponding period of previous year.

The general price level too remained high with the SPI index shown as 115.46, up 6.69 per cent from the corresponding period.

According to commodity-wise analysis, the Food group decreased by 0.24pc for three out of four income groups taken together. At the same time, the index for Non-Food group spurted by 0.07pc.

The only exception was the group in the highest income bracket (above Rs12,000) for which the Food group climbed by 0.08pc followed by the Non-Food Group which became dearer by 0.04pc over the previous week.

Overall, the SPI increased by 0.06pc for this group mainly due to increase in the prices of items such as chicken, mutton, beef etc., now presumably consumed exclusively by the households in this income bracket.

National average of the prices of mutton collected by FBS staff in 17 cities of Pakistan ranged from Rs110 per kg in Bannu to Rs220 per kg in Karachi. Similarly, the prices of beef ranged from Rs70 per kg to Rs110 per kg.

As regards the other groups, the index dropped by 0.70pc for the households with incomes up to Rs3,000 per month, by 0.60pc for those with incomes between Rs3,001 and Rs5,000 and by 0.36pc for those with incomes between Rs5,001 and Rs12,000.

In all, the prices of 16 out of 53 essential items comprising the SPI basket recorded decline during the period under review as compared to previous week as follows:

Onions (4.97pc), wheat flour average quality (4.78pc), wheat (3.57pc), egg (farm) (3.38pc), potatoes (2.52pc), LPG (11-kg cylinder) (1.21pc), garlic (0.42pc), red chilies powdered (38pc), masoor pulse washed (0.31pc), bananas (0.27pc), firewood (0.23pc), sugar (0.0.17pc), moong pulse washed, gur & vegetable ghee (loose) (0.11pc each) and mustard oil (0.09pc).

During the period under review, the prices of following 14 items mounted as compared to previous week: Tomatoes (37.08pc), chicken farm (16.46pc), bread plain medium size (1.47pc), lawn (1.22pc), beef (1.07pc), shirting (0.98pc), mutton (0.75pc), cooked beef (plate) (0.55pc), coarse latha (0.54pc), voile printed (0.50pc), cooked dal (plate) (0.43pc), gram pulse washed (0.26pc), rice Irri-6 (0.22pc) and mash pulse washed (0.14pc).

A table shows zero change in average price of cement prevailing in 8 cities of Pakistan. In fact, however, it scored the highest ever level of Rs242 per 50-kg bag in Quetta. The next highest price was Rs240 and it prevailed in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan. In other cities, its rate was reported as Rs237.50 (Karachi), Rs235 (Lahore), Rs232.50 (Peshawar) and Rs220 in Hyderabad.

FERTILISER: The prices of following chemical fertilizers went up during the period under review as compared to previous week:

Urea Kisan (0.02pc), Dia Ammonium Sulphate (0.18pc), S.SP. Phosphate (GR) (0.98pc), S.SP. Phosphate (PD) (0.45pc) and T.SP. Phosphate (GR) (0.84pc).

As regards the fertilizers which became relatively cheaper, they were as follows: Urea Sona (10pc), Nitro Phosphate (0.85pc) and C. Ammonium Nitrate (0.85pc).