23 May 2004	Sunday	03 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, May 22: The Sensitive Price Indicator continuing its upward spiral for the fifth consecutive week moved up further by 0.24 per cent during the week ending May 20 , according to a weekly price review issued by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday.

The period since April 15 has thus seen an increase of 3.11pc, constituting 28.43pc of the increase in the SPI of 10.94pc over the past one year, signifying the relentless acceleration of cost of living for the people.

With 2000-01 as the bench mark, the SPI rose to 118.57 during the period under review.

Disaggregated data on the prices shows that the SPI rose the highest - 0.26pc - for the households with incomes above Rs12,000 per month, cascading down to 0.23pc for the households in income bracket Rs5,001-12,000, and to 0.18pc for those in income bracket Rs3,001-5,000.

As compared to these income groups, the increase in the SPI was the lowest for households with incomes up to Rs3,000, that is, 0.17pc. It is, however, no consolation for these poor people because even a slight upward movement of price of any commodities is like the last straw on the camel's back.

A commodity group-wise analysis shows that the main factor in the rising trend of the SPI is the food group which underwent a spiral of as much as 0.33pc for the all the income groups taken together. Particularly noteworthy were the pulses which became even more inaccessible for the low- and middle-income groups.

The non-food group saw an increase of 0.3pc due to 1.02pc increase in the price of LPG (11 kg cylinder) which is consumed only by ordinary households as household fuel in the urban and rural areas not catered to by the piped natural gas.

Small wonder, the non-food segment of the SPI rose by 0.10pc for the households at the bottom of the socio-economic rung, which was the highest, as compared to other income groups.

In the food group, an item which has of late come to figure on almost regular basis is fresh milk. Its average rate, derived from the data collected in 17 cities of Pakistan, is shown to have gone up by 0.70pc to Rs20.26 per litre. In Karachi and Hyderabad, however, its rates were Rs25 and Rs24 per litre, respectively.

The remaining 21 items, which became dearer during the period under review, as compared to previous week, are as follows: Bananas (4.01pc), chicken farm (3.75pc), potatoes (2.76pc), curd (1.10pc), beef (1.05pc), garlic (0.99pc), cooked dal (plate) (0.85pc), wheat (0.57pc), gram pulse washed (0.56pc), gur (0.47pc), mutton (0.33pc), rice basmati broken and mash pulse washed (0.31pc each), vegetable ghee tin (0.29pc), coarse latha (0.27pc), firewood (0.23pc), mustard oil (0.19pc), rice Irri-6 (0.14pc), vegetable ghee loose (0.10pc), and masoor pulse washed (0.06pc).

Out of 53 essential items constituting the SPI basket, only six items showed a reduction in their prices. These included: Egg farm (-4.63pc), onions (-1.85pc), tomatoes (-1.75pc), wheat flour average quality (-0.55pc), sugar (-0.52pc) and moong pulse washed (-0.14pc).