ISLAMABAD, April 28: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) increased by 0.31 per cent during the week ending April 27 over the previous week, according to the weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday.
Weekly inflation measured through SPI witnessed an upward trend as a result of massive increase in prices of 20 essential kitchen items, thus putting an extra pressure on the monthly income of the salaried class.
The group-wise analysis of behaviour of prices of 53 essential items prevailing in 17 towns of Pakistan shows that the SPI witnessed an increase of 0.29 per cent and 0.30 per cent, respectively, for households in the two lower income brackets (up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000).
For households in income brackets of Rs5,001-12,000, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 0.30 per cent while for households in income group basket of over Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth 0.24 per cent over the previous week.
Comparing with the corresponding week last year, the SPI registered an increase of 7.99 per cent during the period under review.
According to data, prices of 20 items went up during the period under review as compared to the previous week.
The price of tomatoes increased to Rs19.17 per kg as against Rs17.13 (11.91pc); onions stood at Rs14.04 per kg as against Rs13.11 (7.09pc).
Prices of potatoes increased from Rs10.64 to Rs11.36 per kg by 6.77pc; bath soap (lifebuoy) increased to Rs15 per cake as against Rs14.47 (3.66pc).
An increase of 1.74 per cent was witnessed in red chillies to Rs114.01 per kg as against Rs112.06. Rice basmati (broken) increased by 1.37 per cent to Rs26.65 per kg from Rs26.29; egg hen 0.97 per cent to Rs29.03 per dozen as against Rs28.75, milk fresh 0.84 per cent to Rs27.56 per litre as against Rs27.33, washing soap nylon 0.74 per cent to Rs8.21 per cake as against Rs8.15.
The price of vegetable ghee increased by 0.73 per cent to Rs80.21 per kg as against Rs79.63; curd 0.53 per cent to Rs32.03 per kg as against Rs31.86; chicken 0.45 per cent to Rs80.58 per kg as against Rs80.22, gur by 0.39 per cent to Rs35.60 per kg as against Rs35.46, mash (washed) 0.38 per cent to Rs72.05 per kg as against Rs71.78, lawn 0.18 per cent to Rs82.74 per metre as against Rs82.59; beef 0.12 per cent to Rs120.14 per kg as against Rs120, milk powdered Nido 0.11 per cent to Rs135 per 400gm as against Rs134.85; sugar 1.10 per cent to Rs30.33 per kg as against Rs303.30; mutton 0.08 per cent to Rs228.63 per kg as against Rs228.44; moong (washed) 0.05 pc to Rs55.30 as against Rs55.27.
