September 16, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 03, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) increased by 1.29 per cent during the week ending Sept 14 over the previous week, according to the weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday.

The data indicated that individual prices of around 24 items recorded an increase during the week for all income groups because of an increase in prices of onion, potatoes, chicken, and some other essential products.

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 decrease of 1.63pc and 1.59pc, respectively, for households in the two lower income brackets (up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000).

For households in income brackets Rs5,001-12,000, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 1.46pc, while for the households in the income group basket of over Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth 1.05pc over the previous week.Comparing with the corresponding week last year, the SPI registered an increase of 10.02 per cent during the period under review.

According to the data, prices of 24 items went up during the period under review as compared to the previous week. The price of tomatoes increased by 31.52 per cent to Rs28.75 per kg as against Rs21.86; an increase of 22.09 per cent in onions, which stood at Rs25.15 per kg during the week under review as against Rs20.60.

The price of wheat increased by 7.05pc to Rs13.97 per kg from Rs13.05, wheat flour 4.54pc to Rs16.13 per kg as against Rs15.43, 3.40pc in potatoes to Rs18.55 per kg as against Rs17.94, gur 1.29pc to Rs36.78 per kg from Rs36.31; mustard oil 0.99pc to Rs94.81 per kg as against Rs93.88, washing soap nylon 0.92pc to Rs8.79 each as against Rs8.71, firewood 0.87pc to Rs205.73 per 40kg as against Rs203.96.

The price of kerosene increased by 0.74pc to Rs39.50 per litre as against Rs39.21, bred plain meduim size 0.66pc to Rs16.85 each as against Rs16.74, cooked dal plate 0.63pc to Rs19.10 each as against Rs18.98, garlic by 0.60pc to Rs52.19 per kg as against Rs51.88, shirting 0.44pc to Rs69.11 per metre as against Rs68.81, LPG 11 kg cylinder 0.37pc to Rs594.08 each as against Rs591.87.

The price of rice basmati broken was up by 0.35pc to Rs31.97 per kg as against Rs31.86, coarse latha 0.33pc to Rs36.99 per kg as against Rs36.87, rice irri-6 0.26pc to Rs23.48 per kg as against Rs23.42 and masoor pulse washed 0.24pc to Rs55.28 per kg as against Rs55.15. The price of milk powdered Nido was up by 0.21pc to Rs144.71 per 400 gm as against Rs144.41.