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ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) has registered 0.40 per cent increase during the week ending Oct 23, 2003, as compared to previous week, according to the weekly price review of the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday.
This has raised the index to 112.77 with 100 as the benchmark starting with 2000-01, up 4.19 per cent from the corresponding period of the previous year.
The main contribution to this increase in SPI was by the rising cost of foodstuffs. The SPI for these went up by 0.64pc for the households at the lowest rung (up to Rs3000 per month). The middle income households were hit equally hard by the price spiral, with the foodstuffs SPI rising by 0.67pc and 0.60pc for households in the income brackets Rs3001-5000 and Rs5001-12000.
That the price spiral is affecting mainly the households with lower incomes is made further evident by the fact that the foodstuffs SPI for incomes above Rs12000 increased by only 0.55pc.
The FBS figures also show a similar consistency in respect of Non-food SPI. It went up by 0.31pc for the lowest income households and by a mere 0.06pc for those in the highest income bracket.
Among 18 out of 53 essential items comprising the SPI basket were the wheat and wheat flour. The average price of wheat jumped up to Rs9.72 per kg, and that of wheat flour to Rs11.40 per kg, registering an increase of 1.36pc and 0.26pc from previous week, respectively.
The prices of 16 remaining items went up over the previous week as follows: Tomatoes (20.85pc), red chilies (powdered) (3.38pc), egg (farm) (2.92pc), LPG (11 kg cylinder) (1.97pc), vegetable ghee (loose) (1.88pc), potatoes (1.47pc), garlic (1.45pc), bread plain medium size (1.33pc), beef (1.26pc), firewood (0.99pc), mutton (0.93pc), shirting (0.78pc), mustard oil (0.74pc), rice Irri- 6 (0.24pc), vegetable ghee (tin) (0.15pc) and cooking oil (tin) (0.14pc).
The prices of following 10 items decreased as follows: Chicken farm (-5.66pc), onions
(-3.31pc), gram pulse washed
(-1.58pc), mash pulse washed
(-0.66pc), moong pulse washed
(-0.52pc), gur (-0.42pc), bananas
(-0.25pc), masoor pulse washed
(-0.14pc), rice basmati broken
(-0.10pc) and sugar (-0.10pc).
CEMENT: The price of cement swung upward during the period under review, thus making up for the slight decrease of previous week.
Based on the rates prevailing in 8 cities, its average price moved up by 0.23pc. The peak price of Rs230 per 50 kg bag ruled in Islamabad, Lahore and Quetta. In Rawalpindi, it was Rs227.50, in Multan Rs225, in Peshawar Rs223.08, in Karachi Rs212 and Hyderabad Rs210.
