ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) rose by 0.03 per cent during the week ending September 22, over the previous week, according to a weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday.

The data showed that overall SPI recorded a positive growth during the week under review owing to a slight increase in prices of tomatoes across the country.

The 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 0.08 per cent and 0.05 per cent for households in two lower income brackets (up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000).

For the households in income brackets Rs5,001-12,000, the decrease in the SPI was in the range of 0.01 per cent. While for the households in the income group basket of over Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth 0.08 per cent over the previous week.

Comparing with the corresponding week last year, the SPI registered an increase of 9.15 per cent during the period under review.

The prices of 17 items went up during the period under review as compared to previous week. These were: tomatoes (9.78 per cent), eggs (3.36 per cent), gur (0.90 per cent), mash pulse washed (0.76 per cent), bread plain (1.29 per cent), firewood (0.19 per cent), mustard oil (0.12 per cent), chicken farm (2.60 per cent), moong pulse washed (0.24 per cent), LPG 11-kg cylinder (0.58 per cent), cooked dal (0.33 per cent), garlic (0.17 per cent), kerosene (0.17 per cent), vegetable ghee loose ( 0.15 per cent), wheat (0.09 per cent), and gram pulse washed (0.35 per cent).

The week under report also saw a decrease in average prices of six essential items. These included: onions (5.20 per cent), sugar (1.65 per cent), masoor pulse washed (0.41 per cent), potatoes (1.41 per cent), red chillies powdered (0.39 per cent), and wheat flour (0.08 per cent).