ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Prices of 22 essential kitchen items, including onions, witnessed an upward trend during the week ending Aug 31 over previous week, according to statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday.

The prices of these items showed a steady upward trend during the last couple of weeks.

According to the data, prices of 22 items went up during the period under review as compared to the previous week.

Price of onions increased to Rs19.20 per kg as against Rs17.57 (9.28pc).

An increase of 6.40 per cent was witnessed in chicken which stood at Rs100.60 per kg during the week as against Rs94.55.

Price of eggs increased to Rs45.65 per dozen from Rs43.56 (4.80pc), rice Irri-6 from Rs22.87 to Rs23.21 per kg (1.49pc); 1.40 per cent in potatoes to Rs18.13 per kg as against Rs17.88, LPG 11 kg cylinder 1.27pc to Rs576.18 each from Rs568.94; salt powdered 1.24pc to Rs4.88 per kg as against Rs4.82, vegetable ghee tin 1.19 per cent to Rs275.29 per 2.5 kg as against Rs272.06, cooking oil tin 1.19pc to Rs275.29 per 2.5 kg as against Rs272.06.

The price of wheat flour increased by one per cent to Rs15.12 per kg as against Rs14.97, wheat 0.71pc to Rs12.79 per kg as against Rs12.70, gur 0.58pc to Rs36.18 per kg as against Rs35.97, shirting by 0.42pc to Rs68.64 per metres as against Rs68.35, voil printed 0.36pc to Rs38.78 per metres as against Rs38.64, masoor pulse washed 0.35 per cent to Rs54.95 per kg as against Rs54.76.

The gram pulse washed prices were up by 0.34pc to Rs40.87 per kg as against Rs40.73, bananas 0.33pc to Rs33.14 per dozen as against Rs33.03, firewood 0.29 per cent to Rs203.18 per 40 kg as against Rs202.59, garlic 0.19pc to Rs52.06 per kg as against Rs51.96, lawn 0.19 per cent to Rs81.19 per metres as against Rs81.04, coarse latha 0.08pc to Rs36.87 per metres as against Rs36.84 and milk fresh 0.07pc to Rs29.18 per kg as against Rs29.16.

This surge in the prices of daily use items has pushed up the weekly inflation measured through the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) by 0.49 per cent.

The 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 0.41 per cent and 0.45 per cent, respectively, for households in the two lower income brackets (up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000).

For the households in income brackets Rs5, 001-12,000, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 0.49 per cent, while for the households in the income group basket of over Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth 0.49 per cent over the previous week. Comparing with the corresponding week last year, the SPI registered an increase of 8.13 per cent during the period under review.