ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: Weekly inflation measured through the sensitive price index (SPI) surged by 30.38 per cent during the week ended on Oct 23 over the corresponding week of last year, Statistics Division said on Friday.

The downward trend in the weekly inflation showed some let-up in fruits, vegetable and flour prices in the past few weeks.

The weekly inflation reached the highest level of 34 per cent last month.

Inflation recorded a decrease of 0.48 per cent over the previous week. However, the SPI data showed that the worst hit were households with Rs3,000 monthly income.

The SPI witnessed an increase of 32.33 per cent and 31.12 per cent 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 was in the range of 30.87 per cent, and for households in the income basket of over Rs12,000 inflation registered a growth of 30.29 per cent over the same week last year.

The prices of tomatoes rose by 9.25 per cent to Rs28.12 per kg from Rs25.74, masoor washed by 3.09 per cent to Rs126.92 per kg from Rs123.12, eggs by 1.32 per cent to Rs61.24 per dozen from Rs60.44 and wheat 1.17 per cent to Rs26.03 per kg from Rs25.73 during the week under review.

Curd price went up by 0.97 per cent to Rs42.85 per kg from Rs42.44, washing soap by 0.87 per cent to Rs12.76 per cake from Rs12.65, gur 0.68 per cent to Rs40.19 per kg against Rs39.92 and rice basmati broken by 0.44 per cent to Rs50.37 per kg against Rs50.15.

Electricity bulb 60 watts price increased by 0.44 per cent to Rs13.56 each from Rs13.50, milk fresh by 0.42 per cent to Rs35.90 per kg against Rs35.75, beef by 0.28 per cent to Rs141 per kg from Rs140.61 and firewood by 0.23 per cent to Rs256.83 per 40 kg from Rs256.25.

The price of mash pulse washed was up by 0.08 per cent to Rs74.47 per kg from Rs74.41, mustard oil by 0.01 pc to Rs149.40 per kg from Rs149.39.