ISLAMABAD, May 5: Weekly inflation measured through the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) increased by 0.03 per cent during the week ending May 4, over the previous week, according to the weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday.

This surge in the SPI was mainly because of increase in price of 16 essential items during the period under review. The SPI has witnessed slight upward trend for the last three weeks consecutively because of poor supply of essential commodities in the market.

A group-wise analysis of the behaviour of prices of 53 essential items prevailing in 17 towns of Pakistan shows that the SPI witnessed an increase of 0.02 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively, for households in the two lower income brackets (up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000).

For households in the income bracket of Rs5,001-12,000, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 0.01 per cent, while for the households in the income group of over Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth 0.03 per cent over the previous week.A comparison showed that the SPI registered an increase of 7.72 per cent during the period under review as against the rise witnessed in the corresponding week last year.

According to data, prices of 16 items went up during the period under review as compared to the previous week.

The price of tomatoes increased by 29.94 per cent to Rs24.91 per kg as against Rs19.17; an increase of 2.34 per cent was witnessed in the price of tea prepared which stood at Rs6.55 per cup during the week under review as against Rs6.40.

The price of curd increased by 1.56 per cent to Rs32.53 per kg from Rs32.03, bananas by 0.93 per cent to Rs33.59 per dozen as against Rs33.28, red chillies by 0.92 per cent to Rs115.06 per kg as against Rs114.01, milk fresh by 0.91 per cent to Rs27.81 per litre from Rs27.56, washing soap nylon by 0.61 per cent to Rs8.26 per cake as against Rs8.21, potatoes by 0.44 per cent to Rs11.41 per kg as against Rs11.36, mustard oil by 0.42 per cent to Rs83.44 per kg as against Rs83.09.

The price of rice irri-6 increased by 0.36 per cent to Rs19.38 per kg as against Rs19.31, masoor pulse washed by 0.17 per cent to Rs46.20 per kg as against Rs46.12, lawn by 0.17 per cent to Rs82.88 per metre as against Rs82.74, rice basmati broken by 0.15 per cent to Rs26.69 per kg as against Rs26.65, vegetable ghee tin by 0.05 per cent to Rs240.12 per 2.5 kg as against Rs240, cooking oil tin by 0.05 per cent to Rs241.41 per 2.5 litre as against Rs241.29 and mutton by 0.03 per cent to Rs228.70 per kg as against Rs228.63.