ISLAMABAD: Weekly inflation for the combined group in the period ended on April 1 fell by 0.43 per cent on the back of a slight decline in prices of essential food items, showed data released by the Pakis­tan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

The week-on-week decline was noted following an upsurge for two consecutive weeks. Since January, an upward movement in the prices of essential kitchen items was noted despite the government’s claims that rates of consumer items were declining. The PBS calculates the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) based on the prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets across 17 cities of the country.

For the lowest income group earning below Rs17,732 per month, the SPI decreased by 0.32pc, while for those who are earning above Rs44,175, it recorded a decline of 0.46pc.

This was mainly due to a decline in prices of food items including chicken (8.44pc), tomatoes (5.70pc), onions (1.95pc), pulse moong (0.84pc), potatoes (0.74pc), pulse gram (0.24pc), mustard oil and pulse masoor (0.15pc each) and pulse mash (0.05pc).

Among non-food items, prices of diesel declined 2.56pc, petrol 1.36pc and LPG 0.51pc.

The items whose prices increased during the week included bananas (2.19pc), sugar (1.92pc), cooking oil (1.23pc) and mutton (1.04pc).

During the week, 15 items recorded an increase, 12 showed decline and 24 unchanged.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2021