ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) declined by 0.09 per cent during the week ending September 15, over the previous week, according to a weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday.

Group-wise analysis of the behaviour of prices of 53 essential items prevailing in 17 towns of Pakistan shows that the SPI witnessed a decrease by 0.12 per cent and 0.13 per cent, respectively, for the households in two lower income brackets (up to Rs3000 and Rs3001-5000).

For the households in income brackets Rs5001-12000, the decrease in the SPI was in the range of 0.11 per cent and above Rs12000 income bracket, it stood at 0.07 per cent over the previous week.

However, when compared with the corresponding week last year, the SPI registered an increase of 8.69 per cent.

According to the FBS data, the prices of 13 items went up during the period under review as compared to previous week. These were: eggs (2.49pc), gur (1.32pc), mash pulse washed (1.15pc), salt powdered (1.07pc), bread plain (0.43pc), firewood (0.39pc), mustard oil (0.26pc), masoor pulse washed (0.07pc), chicken farm (0.25pc), mutton (0.15pc), cooked beef (0.12 per cent), moong pulse washed (0.1 per cent) and gram pulse washed (0.03 per cent).

The week under report also saw a decrease in average prices of 12 essential items. These included: tomatoes (7.32 per cent), garlic (0.31 per cent), potatoes (0.11 per cent), electric bulb (60 watts) (0.52 per cent), sugar (1.19 per cent), LPG cylinder (0.48 per cent), vegetable ghee (loose) (0.09 per cent), bananas (0.19 per cent), wheat (0.18 per cent), curd (0.11 percent) and beef (0.07 per cent).