June 21, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 20: The weekly inflation surged by 26.79pc during the week ended on June 19 over the corresponding week of last year.

This unprecedented increase in inflation, measured through the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), occurred due to rising prices of 23 food items in the week, said the Statistics Division data issued on Friday.

The inflation, however, recorded a marginal increase of 0.76pc during the week under review over the previous week.

The SPI witnessed an increase of 30.32pc and 29.57pc for households in income brackets of up to Rs3, 000 and Rs3, 001 to Rs5, 000 respectively.

For households in the income brackets of Rs5, 001 to 12,000, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 27.46pc, and for households in the income basket of over Rs12, 000; the inflation registered a growth of 24.04pc over the week last year.

The price of tomato rose by 33.53pc to Rs13.86 per kg, chicken bird by 10.31pc to Rs87.54 per kg, potato by 5.54pc to Rs19.42 per kg and tea packet (250 gm) by 5.06pc to Rs83 during the week under review.

Egg price went up by 4.82pc to Rs48.75 per dozen, vegetable ghee (2.5 kg) by 3.04pc to Rs395, LPG cylinder (11-kg) by 2.50pc to Rs687.53 and kerosene by 2.17pc to Rs55.02 per litre.

Banana price increased by 2.05pc to Rs51.23 per dozen, cooking oil (2.5 litre tin) by 2.04pc to Rs398, milk powder (Nido) and salt powered by 1.11pc each to Rs160 and Rs5.47 per kg, respectively.

The price of masoor pulse (washed) up by 0.79pc to Rs111.88 per kg, bread plain (mid-size) by 0.64pc to Rs21.85 each, firewood by 0.60pc to Rs238.58 per 40 kg and bath soap (Lifebouy) by 0.60pc to Rs20 per cake. The rate of curd rose by 0.53pc to Rs40.14 per kg, washing soap 0.53pc to Rs11.32.

Fresh milk price up by 0.38pc to Rs34.16 per litre and wheat flour by 0.36pc to Rs22.52 per kg, vegetable ghee (loose) by 0.13pc to Rs134.27 per kg and mash pulse by 0.04pc to Rs72.60 per kg.